Things

gotten intotaken care of while not at the NOR shoot.

Ex-wife had a plumbing problem, loaned her some money for a plumber to root out the line. She e-mailed that the problem in the sewer line was a 'humongous' hair clog(she & the daughter both have long hair).

I sent back 'Stop shedding so much'.

I don't think it went over all that well.

The NOR shoot begins tomorrow,

and here I sit. Dammit.

I half thought about retiring when it turned out I couldn't get the leave time for this.

Have fun, you bastards.

Yes, the lack of 'use your hands' knowledge is bad (link corrected)

Really bad.

My daughter's first year in college she got a job at the museum in Norman, and one of her big selling points was when the asked if she could use 'basic hand tools': they meant like a screwdriver and hammer, and when she said "Yes" they were delighted. They were tired of hiring people who had to call building maintenance when they found a loose drawer pull.

Couple of years before that, some people I knew were building a three-level stage at a Ren-fair somewhere back east. Lots of local volunteers, almost none of whom could do anything with tools, including measure: they told one guy they needed a piece of plywood 48x60", and he(and those around him) couldn't figure out how to get that out of a 4x8' sheet. They had to give a short class on measuring, hammering and cutting to get the damn stage done.

God, I am so glad for the times I made the kids help do things around the house. And yard. And car, and forge...


As to the screwed-up link, I guess 'general idiocy' is more than just a post label...

Damn, I'm glad I bought a case when I did!

7.5 Swiss, that is. Late last year my favorite ammo dealer had two cases and I bought one, figuring A: it'll keep and
B: won't get any cheaper.

I was right on both counts. The stuff has been hard to find, and I just looked around and found the price per case to be $240, a lot more than I paid just a few months ago.

And the Socialist Senator from NY speaks again

and on this speech the major media doesn't think it's worth reporting. Or just doesn't want to spread around what she said.

Buying a gun vs. illegal alien applying for Z visa

Have you noticed that if the NICS check is having problems they have three days to decide if you'll be allowed to buy a gun, but the IIABAN* bill gives 24 hours to decide if someone gets the visa? And if the check can't be completed by that time, they get it automatically?

Back when I was a dispatcher, one of the things you had to deal with was that there was no online way to check if someone with a Mexican drivers license had a valid license, or find out if they were a wanted criminal in Mexico. The way an official put it one day was that 'there's no way we're going to interface our NCIC system or NLETS directly to Mexico'. You see, among the requirements of people using these systems is requirements for security of access to the data and respect for privacy law in the use of it(consider the corruption in Mexico and think of them having access to those systems).

Now consider that this bill would give one whole day to find out if someone has a criminal or other record that would disqualify them, when there's no fast way to check on this stuff into Mexico, and no way to know if the information from there is accurate and true.

But Chucky Schumer & Kennedy & Co. think the government needs three days to decide if you'll be allowed to buy a gun.

Just friggin' wonderful.


*Illegal Immigrant Amnesty By Another Name

MOLLE light

Saw a review of these in Shotgun News last month, and thought it looked pretty neat. So I checked it out, and ordered one









I'll state right off that I'm still a bit ticked off at PentagonLight who make it. Ordering it involved a delay("I didn't get a confirmation for shipping like the site says to expect." "We're backordered, it'll be a week or so."), then more delay, then a couple of unanswered e-mails, then a "Tell me where it is or cancel the order" from me followed by "We're sorry about that, yours should ship Monday at the latest".

It shipped Tuesday. Yeah, it's just one day, but it was damn near a month after I ordered it. So while I'm hoping that this was an exception for their service, I'm still ticked.

MOLLE is short for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment, the system that replaced the old ALICE gear(no, I don't remember what it's short for). This light looks kind of like the old military right-angle flashlight. This one is small(3.5" tall) and light(1.5 oz) and uses a single AA battery. Instead of a bulb, it uses a .5 watt LED with about 40 lumens output, and can be had with blue or red filters that screw onto the base for storage and over the lamp for use. It's supposed to fit inside one of the loops on the MOLLE gear(don't have any to check that) and has a spring clip that allows it to be hooked on a belt, pocket or whatever.

A bit unhappy with the company or not, so far I have to say this is a very good light. Not as bright as my Surefire G2, it's a very similar white light with no shadows or holes in it. The switch is on top: press down a little for momentary, down all the way for constant on. It's supposed to run about three hours constant with a fresh battery, soon as I get a chance I'll stick a brand new Duracell in and try it. It'll sit upright on the base, and I've hooked it on pockets and belt; the hook does swivel so you can aim it.

Overall I rate it as a good piece to have.

Further on the Christian/Newsom murders

here and here. The reports of mutilations are now reported by the authorities as false, which- assuming they're not downplaying things- leaves a bloody, horrible case of kidnapping, rape and murder.

It's being(unfortunately) used by apologists for the dirtbags and some white supremacists and some general 'these rumors are just because the suspects are black' weenies to push their viewpoints. And we're still stuck with the simple fact that if a gang of whites had done this to a black man and woman, the major media would've been screaming about it from the start.

Lots of thoughts on this mess, but I'm going to have to work on them a bit.

Memorial Day Updated

Over the years, I've known a bunch of people who were currently in uniform, or had been in the past. Family, friends, people who(in CAP) taught/trained my son.

This is the first Memorial Day since son joined up. He's currently in a quite nice place; in a few months he'll be in a somewhat less nice place. He's had good training, in Basic from people freshly back from the immediate war zone* and since with people who've been there; a bunch of people in his unit have been there before. They're prepping hard for it. There's a certain amount of concern, of course, but knowing that does make this a bit less difficult to deal with.

What'll I do today? The flag is up out front, at least unless('until' by the look of the clouds) it starts raining again. I'm not going shopping. There's things I'll take care of in/around the house, and when I take a break I'll check around on the web on the State Of Things, and I'll be thinking about people I know and don't know who're out on the sharp end. I'm uncertain about God, in that while I think He's out there, sometimes I'm not too fond of Him, but I'll probably do a bit of praying(can't hurt).

This is a marvelous country we live in. Because a bunch of people of all social classes were willing to put their lives and families on the line to create it; because a lot of people have fought for it in many ways since, many losing everything. Someone once asked how, if I liked this country so much, I could be so distrustful of the government and I said it's because I love this country and I don't want the muck-sucking politicians and their buttmonkeys to screw it up because I wasn't watching. There are a bunch of people in ACUs all over the world as well as here, some actively fighting the bad guys and the others training for the time, and it's to keep this country going without the bad guys killing and torturing in the streets here.

From those in graves in many places to those old ones who fought in the past to those currently out there, we owe them. A lot.


Update: Kevin has a list of places where you can donate to help the troops and the families of the fallen.


* I call Iraq and Afghanistan the 'immediate' zone; I think we're in the 'warm to cool' zone, depending on what part of the country(as in "What's nearby they'd like to hit?") you're in. As to training, in Basic every member of the training cadre had been in one or the other immediate zone within the past six months; the Army has been taking the top few percent of noncoms coming back and rotating them to training duty.