Jennifer

It's the second day in a row that we've seen something truly idiotic from Jennifer.  Today, she takes the cake.  I'm really not sure if Jennifer is a person, or simply a meme.  You decide.

Yep, Jennifer, that would be a great idea.  Pepper-spray someone legally carrying a gun.  Then, when you try to take his gun, you will have committed the second felony of the day.  When the police show up, it may not go as you have planned it.

That is, if you're not shot in the scuffle.  I'm just sayin'.

The Long Day

Several years ago, it had been a long day.  Nothing drastic, but a lot of hours.  I helped close the school house at about 11:00 p.m on a Friday night, got in my pickup truck to head home.

My habit was then, and is now, to click the little button that lets my radio scan frequencies as I drive home.  I'm officially "off-the clock" on the drive home, but I couldn't live with myself if one of my brethren was in a bind and I drove past him or her on my way home, so I scan the radio traffic as I go home and turn the radio off when I'm in my driveway.

As I crossed the river, I heard the dispatcher looking for free units.  A citizen had called in a disturbamce that was about to occur at a taco joint in a strip mall on the north end of the parish.  The strip mall was well-known for having a taco shop, a late night greeting spot for high-shcool and young adults.  As the radio traffic cleared up the situation, it seemed that a bunch of high-shcool kids were going to settle some differences in the parking lot of the taco shop.

"What the hell," thought I.  "I'm hungry, and a taco sounds like a good way to end the evening."  So, I headed for the taco shop.  When I got to the parking lot, I saw two units, clearing the area.  I happened to notice one older redneck, sitting on the tailgate of his pickup truck.  A young deputy was talking to him, and it appeared that he was being obstinate.

I walked over and as I approached I heard the old redneck telling the young deputy that this was a public place and he didn't have to go anywhere. He intended to sit right there, all night.

**Sigh**

The young deputy greeted me, and asked what I was doing out so late.  I told him that I had been working a detail, and thought I'd come eat a taco.  "Let me talk to this guy." I asked.

"I ain't going nowhere!" the old redneck exclaimed.

"Well, sir, maybe you are, and maybe you aren't."  I made firm eye contact with him. "You see, it all depends on whether this parking lot is private property or a public space."  I paused for a moment to let that sink in.  "Now, I'm going to go in and get myself a taco.  While I'm there, I'm going to talk to the manager.  If he tells me that this is private property, then when I come out with my taco, if you're still here, I'm going to arrest you for trespassing."

"If it turns out, " I continued, "that this is public property, then when I come out, I'm going to arrest you for Resisting an Officer."  I took a few seconds to let that sink in.  "But, I'm hungry, and I want a taco.  So, however this turns out, when I come out of the restaurant and you're still here, you're going to jail. And, we're going to tow your truck."

As I walked toward the taco shop, I winked at the young deputy.  When I came out, munching on a taco, the old redneck and the pickup truck were no where to be seen.

It's all in how you explain it to people.

Shoot that Azimuth.

Evidently, Jennifer has never been off concrete.

I am amazed a tthe stupidity of some people who think that they have to comment on everything.

Hat Tip: Angel.

Ag Discs

An agricultural disc is a plowing tool.   It's basically a round, concave piece of mild steel and if you've lived around agriculture, you've seen them used.  For those of you who haven't seen a disc harrow being used, here's a quick video.



The poinnt being, they are agricultural tools, designed to drag through the dirt.  When we lived on the place in Natchitoches parish, there were times when I'd stumble over used disc plates.  They wear out, and being mild steel, they're used for lots of things.

They come in various sizes, and they're very useful for lots of things.  For example, if you weld a piece of pipe through the hole of a used disc harrow, it makes a great stand for a mailbox.

Last year, my elder son asked me to keep an eye out for a couple of used disc plates.

"For what?" I asked

""I'm going to build a big wok." he said. "Fill that center hole, clean it up, and put some handles on it.  I figure I can use it on a campfire and cook anything I want to cook on it."

Well, okay, tiger.  The old man found the disc plates.

There are two of them, about 24" across and weigh about 25 pounds apiece.   My son (bless his heart) comes from a combined redneck/cajun family with a penchant for projects and cooking.

Personally, I can't wait to see how this turns out.  He's really good in a welding shop, and if anyone can fill that hole and make those worn-out discs into something useful, it's him.

I'll do an update when the project is completed.  I bet that thing will make a hell of a fried rice.

Gold Brick Eggs

The Elmer's Candy Company, out of New Orleans, makes seasonal candies, and one of them is the Gold Brick Egg.  This little morsel is made of premium chocolate with nuts.  Nothing else tastes like it, and it's only available during the Lent/Easter season

Belle loves them, and they're seasonal.  So, when I see them in the store, I'm liable to pick up a few of them.  Today, I scored a whole, unopened box of 24.

Sweet, creamy, with nuts, these candy bars have enough sugar to put a diabetic into a coma.  These things are lethal, but oh, they are so very good.  I don't know if they're available nationally, but here in Louisiana, we can get them only around the Easter season.

Thoughts on Wednesday

I got to work this morning, realized I had left my cell phone on the desk at home.  The day progressed normally, without distraction.    I have to remind myself sometimes that my cellphone is MY cellphone, and it's not a leash.

I see that the Wimmen are marching again today.  Without agenda, from all indications, they're just generally pissed off.  Then, I saw this over at the Puppy Blender.

Sometimes reality intrudes.  But, the Movement of Pissed-Off Wimmen isn't often bothered by reality.  This may be the last public gasp of feminism.  We can sure hope so.

The Question Is: Who Did They Miss?

I've quit commenting on the daily news feeds, because many of the stories in the 23-hour news cycle just don't have any legs.  If they report on it for two or three days, maybe it has some substance, maybe not.  However, this one story is evolving quickly.  Remember last week or so when President Trump said that his phone lines were tapped during the campaign?

Well, he was probably right, but not in the way that you think.  As it turns out, it's probably much worse than that.  The better question might be; whose phone was NOT tapped?

The question about whether President Trump was tapped has been reduced to a joke.  The real questions are how often and from how many places.  The answer would probably shock us, if we were ever to learn the truth.  (And did President Obama know what they were doing?  Either that or the CIA, FBI or NSA wasn't telling him. You decide.)

Your smart TV, your cell phone, your laptop computer, or your favortite tablet can all be used as surveillance devices, and almost certainly have.  1984 came during the Obana era, and the question is what did Obama know, and what did he do to put a stop to it.  The Wikileaks dump on Truesday was huge, and it will take a while to learn what we can learn from it, but one thing seems apparent.  The alphabet agencies in the US government are spying on us all.

And here's the problem with weaponizing government.  Eventually, the other party gets to use it.  That's why us small-governent folks want to keep the bureaucrats skinny and stupid.

Dude!

A new study suggests that legal cannabis might affect the beer industry.

Study suggests that legal cannabis sales could take away 7.1% of revenues from the beer industry.

Yeah, but what would it do for the potato-chip industry?

New Battery Tech??

Is there some new battery technology on the way?  From Hot Air, via the NYT.

“Cost, safety, energy density, rates of charge and discharge and cycle life are critical for battery-driven cars to be more widely adopted,” Goodenough said in a statement issued through the university. “We believe our discovery solves many of the problems that are inherent in today’s batteries.”

 The new cells — which use, of all things, glass — also promise safer, faster-charging, longer-lasting batteries for handheld devices, like smartphones and gaming systems, the research team wrote.

Faster, please.

Conundrim

I really don't understand how the Left can view identity theft as a minor offense for an sundocumented illegal immigrant and a major offense for a citizen?

How does a father bring his whole family over here and set up housekeeping without documentation?  Simple.  He gets fake ID.  Fake Social Security, fake driver's license, fake debit cards.  It's identity theft all the way down.

And, what kind of father would put his family through the risk that is associated with living in the gray zone of being an undocumented illegal alien.  What kind of man puts his family through that?

The vast majority of undocumented illegal immigrants may be good people, but don't tell me that they're law-abiding.  Identity theft is a huge problem in this country.

Old and New

A great USAF file photo.  From Strategy Page.

A U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II and a F-35 Lightning II fly in formation with a P-47 Thunderbolt and a P-38 Lightning during the 2017 Heritage Flight Training and Certification Course at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Feb. 11, 2017. The annual aerial demonstration training event has been held at D-M since 2001. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Ashley N. Steffen)

That's a cool photo.  You can click it to see a larger version.

Remember The Alamo

About the time of this post, 5:00 a.m., Santa Anna was preparing to step off against about 200 Texian patriots in a little fortification outside of San Antonio.

By 6:30, a.m., the battle was over and the defenders of the Alamo were thrust into eternity.

This, of course, led to a series of events that culminated in the capture of Santa Anna by Texas forces at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.  Texas independence followed soon after.

The Same, but Different

IT's funny how your eye plays tricks on you.  We were talking about that at the club yesterday.  Subtle differences in shading, or the apparent lines or lack thereof, change the way that our mind processes distance.

All CFDA ranges are exactly alike in terms of the shooting lanes.  The target is 21 feet from the shooters line.  The target is a 24" disc with the center of the target measured 50 inches above the shooting line.  We take great pride in complying with these measurements.  The idea is that the playing field is the same, everywhere.  A shooter can go from his hme range, drive all the way across the country, and compete on a range that's the same as his range at home.

Our home range at Thorn Valley is indoors.  It's in an old barn.  Overhead are wooden rafters that support the loft run the length of the range, drawing your eye toward the target.   Below is a pic of the Thorn Valley range.  Big Mark in lane 1, and Sinister Sal in lane 2

The Thorn Valley Range, Melder, LA

Yep, it's 21 feet to the target, the light is 50 inches off the floor.

Below, is the hone range of the Big Thicket Bushwackers, out of Silsbee, TX.

The Big THicket Bushwackers, Silsbee, TX.

They look different, don't they?  Yet, from a technical standpoint, they're exactly alike.  Differences in lighting, background, concrete vs natural soil.  It makes a difference, but technically, those two ranges have the exact same measurements.

Thorn Valley and the Bushwackers are closely-knit clubs.  We shoot on each others ranges fairly often, yet we've had Bushwackers come to our club and ask "Are those targets at 21 feet?"  The answer is always the same.  "Yep, you can measure it if you want to."  And, when I go to the Bushwackers range, it always looks to me like their targets are a lot farther than 21 feet.

They're all the same, but they are all different.

Beef Tips

We've talked about beef tips before, but we're going to talk about them again.

Belle just loaded a slow-cooker with beef and we're going to let it cook all night.

There is almost nine pounds of beef in that slow-cooker, and we're going to let it go on low all night.  The recipe is the same. Good beef, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Cover it in brown gravy mix and let it go on low all night.

Tomorrow morning, we'll put some yeast rolls on to rise, then thaw out some creamed corn.  Closer to lunch, we'll put on a pot of rice, then when the kids get here, it will be beef tips over rice, creamed corn, and yeast rolls.

Sunday lunch is already cooking.  In another couple of hours, the kitchen will smell like heaven.

Why Do Women Own Guns?

Reading Joe Hufman this morning, I find this video, from the NRA.  It's a great video, focusing on women and guns.  I'll leave it right here if you want to watch it.



The easiest answer is that even asking the question is sexist.  Women own guns for a aridity of reasons, but most importantly, because they are citizens.  Women own guns as collectors, for recreation, competition, target shooting, hunting,.. you name it.  Women own guns for the same reasons that men own guns.

Don't be sexist.

Edit to add.  If you're a guy, and your gal wants to shoot, or carry, or take a course, don't pick her gun out for her.  Let her try as many different kinds as possible, but let her choose her own carry gun.  That choice is as personal as choosing underwear, and she deserves the respect to be able to choose her own gun.

What if GPS Dies?

There is no doubt that GPS (Global Positioning System) has changed the way we navigate.  Our phones, or our little GPS receivers in the car, or boat, or plane, sure help us keep ourselves on track.  But, what happens if the system glitches, or dies?  This article at Strategy Page explores the options.

Since introduced in the early 1990s GPS (satellite based navigation) has revolutionized movement in unfamiliar areas and nowhere was this more apparent than in the military, where so many personnel on the ground, flying aircraft and steering ships operate in unfamiliar surroundings. Yet after a decade old forms of navigation (using compass, sextant and maps) began to fade away in the military. But after a few years a growing number of commanders, and their subordinates, realized that that satellites could fail or be jammed and the only alternative would be to fall back on the old ways. Training was revised.

Training was revised?  Really?  GPS is a tool, but it's not the end-all in land navigation.  And, lete me tell you a little secret; when you're riding in 50 tons of steel, a compass isn't any help either. Navigation from a steel container is by terrain association, keeping track of the sun in the sky, or the way a creek is flowing, or where that big terrain feature might be. A compass is certainly useful,   A GPS is certainly useful, but it's not a crutch.

Which reminds me.  I need to buy a new Rand McNally atlas and put one in the new vehicle.

Charter Arms Off-Duty

You never know what you're going to find, pawn shop crawling, and when I went into my favorite pawn shop today, I found a little jewel under the glass.

It's a Charter Arms Off-Duty, the original version with the exposed hammer spur, of course in .38 Special.  It's a five-shot, snubnose revolver, suitable for concealed  carry.  It seems to be an aluminum framed gun, and I admit that I'm not that familiar with the history of this particular model, but I suspect that this one should be used with standard pressure ammo only..

However, a quick checkout indicated that the gun locks up tight, indexes properly, and has transfer-bar ignition.  The double-action pull is heavier than the single-action pull, which has a little creep, but breaks cleanly.  The little gun shows very little wear, and I suspect that it was carried a lot more than it was shot.

The small fame feels good in my hand, and it seems to have the original grips.  This is a small frame revolver of the type normally seen during the early 1970s and 80s, and I suspect that it is from that era.  The "old"Charter Arms went bankrupt in the 1990s and I believe that this little pistol is from that era.

The "new" Charter Arms is another company that bought the rights to the name of the company and the model names.  The company today is s still manufacturing firearms.

I admit that I'm always on the lookout or a Charter Arms Bulldog, their revolver chambered in .44 Special.  This little revolver will go away soon, as I told my daughter that I'd keep an eye out for a nice, clean, solid little small-frame .38 Special revolver.  This one seems to fit the bill.

Political Violence

If they're anti-Trump, I simply assume that they vote Democrat.

An Ohio man is recovering in the hospital with a broken eye socket and liver damage after falling victim to what appears to be yet another vicious anti-Trump attack. PJ Media has documented close to twenty other violent attacks on Trump supporters since the election.

Why are Democrats so violent?

New World's Record - CFDA Rules

jon spencer asked in comments:

Does the record have to be backed up with a time like they do in drag racing and in the same vein will there eventually be a way to tell if the gun moves before the light comes on?

Good question, Jon, The answer can be found in the Gunslinger's Guidelines, which is found here.  But, in the interest of brevity, I've excerpted the pertinent rule here.

ANTICIPATION: The Competitor cannot move the gun in the holster after the shooting command “set” and before the start light comes on. Furthermore, any shot fired that is faster than the current World Record, must be backed up within 3 hundredths of a second before the round is over. If a competitor has not fired a shot within 3 hundredths of a second in the current round, an additional three attempts will be awarded. If the shot in question is not backed-up, then the shot will be considered “anticipated” and will result in a Procedural Penalty (PV), which is a Loss of Shot.
Note: If a competitor successfully backs up a time faster than the Current World Record in a Class A or B CFDA Titled Championship, then they shall be declared the New World Record Holder, which shall be kept up to date on the CFDA Website. There shall be separate World Records for Men’s and Ladies Division. Hosts must notify CFDA immediately.

So, yeah, the short answer is that you have to back up a World's Record shot, and you have to do it within the round of competition, or in three additional shots.   The back-up time is 3/100ths of a second.  If you can't back it up, it's ruled an anticipation, and the competitor is penalized.

Additionally, in every competition, every shooter is assigned a Hand Judge who's job, among other things is to watch the shooter, assist him as allowed, and make sure that safety rules are followed.  One of the main tasks of the hand judge is to make sure that the gun does not move in the holster between the SET command and the start light.

At Kentucky State last year, I had the most magnificent anticipation ever seen.  Something made me jump the light, and I had the gun out and on target before the light came on.  I lauged, holstered the gun, and took the PV.  Everybody anticipates occasionally.

Life is Complicated

I'm not complaining, you understand, just that life is complicated.  I notice this morning, drinking coffee, that I didn't post at all yesterday.  PawPaw was on the hook to watch grandkids, which isn't a chore as much as it used to be.  They're pretty well able to watch themselves.  And, they know where I hide the ice cream. (It's in the freezer in the garage.)

We didn't do Mardi Gras yesterday.  Normally Belle and I trek to Mamou to enjoy the festivities, but other commitments got in the way.

But, we had a bit of excitement yesterday, and I'll just leave this right here so that I can find it later.



This afternoon looks to be a pleasant exercise in garage door maintenance.