Relief is on the way!

For me, at least. Found a system at a local shop that should take care of my needs nicely. Computer needs, that is. With any luck I should be able to pick it up tomorrow. I added on a cd burner/backups and music/ and had to add a modem; everything's set up for high-speed connections only. Apparently, I'm behind the times.

Carnival of Cordite #40

up at Gullyborg.

Tell me again, we're supposed to trust the Major Media why?

Read this over at Say Uncle, and remind me about the 'superior fact-checking and ethical standards' of the Major Media.

Between crap like this, and the hugely slanted BS they run about the war, I can't think of a reason not to start simply referring to the MM et al as Rathers.

Chipper; The Evening After

I did remember to pick the thing up, and spent a fair piece of the afternoon cutting off the stuff small enough to run through, then doing some more pruning of small stuff and chipping it, then stacking the big stuff for later. Then put everything away so the Yard Security Trainee won't decide to chew the cord in two.

So now my hands hurt, and I've got enough scratches to look like I fought with my daughters psychotic cat. And I got to watch Trainee sniffing through the chips and finding somehow 'choice' bits to chew up further. Between this and the way she jumps, I have to wonder if the little bastard has some rabbit in her family tree.

While performing these joyous activities, I was considering my forge and tools, and an old saying. You've probably heard it: "Do what you love and the money will follow". Guess what? They LIED! I've spent a total of about 24 years smithing; learning, trying, recycling failures, getting ideas and working them out. I've turned out blades of all types and sizes, roasting forks, candleholders, fire kits, chandeliers, screwdrivers, belt buckles, pennanular brooches, knife/fork/spoon sets and I don't know what all else. I've been at the big Irish Festival in Texas, several different celtic festivals there and here, Medieval Fair and some other stuff including fur trade rendezvous. And the best I've done, figuring materials, coal, electricity for the blower, grinding belts and polishing stuff, travel and etc., would be somewhere at or just below minimum wage. There are some people who fill a particular niche in forging and make a good living at it; most live somewhere in the region of 'hand to mouth' and do other things on the side to make ends meet. I have no idea how many fine bladesmiths I've heard of who got hurt or something and couldn't work for a while and were on welfare or people were taking up collections for them. And if it's a health problem it's worse because they usually don't have insurance.

Don't misunderstand, I have loved the making and learning of this. I enjoy the hell out of demonstrating and teaching this stuff, and I wish I had more of a way to pass on what I've learned. It just irritates the hell out of me when someone with a disgustingly cheerful outlook tells some kid the above-noted saying. I never tried to discourage my kids from trying things, and working to be good at what they like; I did make sure they understood that there are bills to pay and obligations to take care of, and that doing something just because you like it often has to take second place. And what REALLY pisses me off is when someone(parents, coaches, teachers) tells a kid who doesn't really have the talent for a game or instrument or whatever that they do and pushes them halfway to death. A kid tries hard but just doesn't have that extra bit, don't lie to them; tell them the damn truth. Yeah, they may hurt, but they'll hurt more if you push/let them run into something they can't make it at. Make damn sure they understand that if they love doing it that they should continue to do so, but don't lie to them and let them make it their life.

Other side of that? A kid with real talent that nobody will push the kid to develop. Talent, if you don't develop the skills to use it, is worthless; no matter how incredibly talented you are, if you don't work at it you won't make it. There are very rare exceptions, but hoping you may be one of them is not the way to make it.

God, how did I get here from running limbs through a chipper?

Fed-Ex timing is everything

I expected them to deliver something this morning. Since every time before it's been between 0800-0830, I hung around 'till about 0915, then headed out to do laundry. And came home to find a '1st attempt' notice on the door, marked 0930. Damn.

Every time I've missed them in the morning they've always made a second pass by the house around 1630-1730, on their way back to the shop I suspect. There's a new Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant that opened nearby, so, having a little extra left over I went there for lunch, then swung by Outdoor America, one of the local gun shops. Who, by the way, was having a sale; I should have turned around and left when I saw the signs. Anyway, I got home and found a '2nd attempt' on the door. I left for lunch about 1130; this one was marked 1140. Dammit!

So I've spent the day since raking leaves and putting them in the second compost heap and some cleaning up around the house. With any luck they'll come back by and save me driving to their office after 6 to pick it up.

I say 'second compost heap' because I just started another one a couple of days ago. The first one has worked nicely with grass clippings and whatever since I started it during summer. However, with leaves falling/blowing in it's full and there was a big pile and more to come, so I dug out another piece of chicken wire and set up another one. Now it's full, and there's a pile dumped in the garden and wet down until the stuff in the two heaps goes down enough to add some in. One thing I've noticed is that if you keep them damp and turn them every third day, they tend to break down fairly quickly. Come spring, I should have quite a bit of compost and worms to dig in.

I've also got to get the chipper back from a friend who's using it. I cut a bunch of limbs out of trees in the back a couple of weeks ago, and I need to chop up the small stuff. Tomorrow's supposed to be windy but a bit warmer, so I'll try to get it tonight.

Every once in a while I think of all that needs doing and consider standing in the yard screaming "Will it never end?!?", but I don't think it'd help. Other than amusing the dogs.

OKC Bombing update

Well, well, KTOK has this on their site:
"Former FBI deputy assistant director Danny Coulsen tells the McCurtain Daily Gazette there is a need for a greater investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing."

McCurtain Daily Gazette reporter J.D. Cash interviewed the former agent for several days on this. He reviewed the redacted documents that Jesse Trentadue has already obtained, and says, basically, "There's a bunch more people who should have been indicted". The KTOK post, including the whole Gazette article, is here, and worth reading. Link direct to the Gazette article is here.

One interesting thing, if you read my earlier posts on this, the documents released to Trentadue so far included the information that the Southern Poverty Law Center had an informant in the Elohim City compound who also fed info to the FBI; now the SPLC is claiming that was in error. I wonder why?

Previous posts here, here, here, here. One or two more that I don't have time to dig up the links to right now

Speaking of wastes of oxygen,

fetid and otherwise, Powerline takes note that Ramsey Clark, the worst excuse for an attorney general this country ever had, is giving Saddam emotional and legal support. I've got a question: has this clown ever found a terrorist or tyrant or commie dictator that he would not support? As I recall, he said- when he was the AG, yet- that the longest sentance for any crime, including murder, should be five years, and absolutely wet his pants at the very idea of a death penalty. He's one of the slimy assholes Steve mentions who makes life hard for actual honest lawyers(yeah, yeah, calm down; they do exist).

Powerline also notes, in the waste of oxygen area, Whoopi Goldberg and the idiots involved in the intro for the latest Looney Tunes collection; check out Mark Steyn's piece linked there.

Hollyweenies and lawyers of the most odious type; fit company for Rall, wouldn't you say?

Political roundup

I've mentioned before that there are things the President has and hasn't done that I'm not happy with. Some of the things in his speech on illegal immigrants today are crap, and others should have been done long ago.

In a nasty case, Rep. Cunningham plead guilty to accepting bribes. It's a terrible thing he did, but at least he kept enough of his integrity to flat plead guilty and resign from the House. It would be nice of some others who've committed similar crimes would go home, but don't hold your breath; there's a bunch of people in D.C. who will not leave until they die if they can prevent it.

It's been established numerous times that Ted Rall is a fetid waste of oxygen, but he just seems to be intent on proving it again and again. But don't you dare question his patriotism! Or that of his buttmonkeys.Got news for you, Teddy; you're not a dissenter, you are on the other side. I don't question your patriotism because I don't think you have any. You're a vile scab on the skin of this nation. Period.

One of the reasons this kind of sewage in print pisses me off so much is having known a bunch of people in the military. My son used to be in the Civil Air Patrol; the influence of a number of Air Force officers (from a Lt. Colonel on down) was wonderful, and at least one of his friends is currently serving(oorah, Joey!). It's enough to make you want to kick someone in a sensitive place. Several times.

Oh, and let us not overlook the "Main Street Republicans", those chicken-hearted clowns who betrayed the folks back home, and are now threatening Michelle Malkin for calling them on it. And for calling the fact that George Soros(Asshole-Socialist) money is involved. It's too involved to quote from here, read it here for all the info.


In other breaking news, Ted Kennedy and Chucky Schumer are opportunistic, hypocritical jackasses(literally and figuratively), Feinstein and Boxer are right up there with them, and I just made a new batch of fudge. Which has nothing to do with politics, but I used the 60% cocoa chips and tripled the amount of pecans in the recipe; waiting for slab to cool will be difficult.

A place to see

Was over at American Drumslinger and he directed me to The Rock Bitch; go check the lady out.

In a good way, of course.

The wind was indeed sweeping down the plain,

and taking anything not nailed or tied down with it. Straight winds in the 30's and gusts of more than 50mph earlier; it's calmed down now, but 'till we get some rain the fire danger is bloody awful here.

Just general notes of things picked up today,

MADD activists have no damn business helping staff checkpoints. The group has changed from one with a legitimate aim to a bunch of nannies who want to control people. Wizbang noted this here: check out the second comment.

There was something of a noise a while back about some twins who sing and are big in the white supremacist movement. Dean Esmay notes that he's used to musicians and a lot of others in the entertainment industry being suckups to dictators(think Carlos Santana wearing a Che' shirt in front of a bunch of Cuban musicians). I've wondered why we haven't heard of some of these clowns wearing a Hitler shirt; after all, they like to cheer Castro and Stalin and company. However, from this, some of them seem to be getting over their aversion to the Nazis; after all, they were socialists so how bad could they have been?

Let's see, Bitch Sheehan is back in Texas with very few buttmonkeys backing her up(amazing what criticizing Hillary does for ones pull on the left, isn't it?). I like this; they had a 'traditional Iraqi meal' for Thanksgiving, saying "They said they wanted to call attention to the innocent Iraqi victims in addition to the more than 2,100 U.S. soldiers killed since the war began in March 2003. " I wonder if they give a rats ass for the innocent Iraqis murdered by the tens of thousands by Saddam before we took him out?

In the foreign moonbats(Canadian division), we have this. The Canadian military used to be one of the best forces in the world, now they're one of the most crapped-upon by idiots like this...

Oh Lord, look what Kevin found at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical!

And Schumer and company(socialist weenie divison) are at it again, check this out at Riverdog.

And Steve did make it to the range!

Assorted thoughts and links on a Saturday

Now that I'm out of the turkey-endorphin haze and have reasonably lucid thoughts. Smallest Minority has(again) two good things. First is a pro-gun article in- of all places- the New York Times! The second is called March of the Lemmings, which includes, among other things, one of the most nutcase level rants from DU I've heard of yet. I don't know whether to recommend the latter as a 'do you believe this shit?' read or as a 'know your enemy' read. And make no mistake, some of those people flatly are The Enemy.

Made it back to Uncle's place and found this on some clowns who call themselves the Gun Guys; standard 'guns are eeevillle crap coming from people claiming to be pro-gun. Then there's some idiocy in the name of law enforcement here. And to end it all, a link to an ATF letter in which they class a shoestring as a 'machine gun'. No, I'm not kidding. And, as a side note, evil days have come to Uncle's house; the kid can now say "No!"

Michelle has this on the resignation of the 'professor' who wrote the idiot letter threatening a conservative student and calling for troops to kill their officers. The school does get points for actually checking into this, but loses points as no tar and feathers were involved.

She also notes some of the crap going on in our schools. And these are the same idiots who say vouchers and school choice will hurt education. Damn.

Wizbang has this linking to "one of the better new bloggers on the left". It's an article on how we should not adjust our foreign policy to try to make others like us. In the overall I agree, but I get pissed off at things like "...its decision to wage war based on claims concerning the Iraqi threat which were false and inaccurate, are destructive and indefensible. " I looked at the rest of his site, and found, among other things, 'irrational attacks on ex-supporters of the war' and the 'chaos in Iraq', and so forth. It's better than some others in that he doesn't call anyone who disagrees with him vile names, but otherwise it seems a standard 'Bush is evil, conservatives are bad' lefty blog. If this is one of the 'better' bloggers on the left, sheesh.


I'm so damn sick of the "Bush lied!" crap. Especially when it's coming from senators and reps who are on defense committees and had full access to the intel. And I'm sick of these clowns in Congress throwing out words, calling for withdrawal, etc., then screaming like stuck pigs when someone quotes their own words back. Or, in the case of Murtha, actually making them vote on the measure they talked up. Since when it is dirty tricks to make you live up to your own words?

Screw it, this is ruining my good mood.

Ho, ho, ho, and damn! I'm still full

Thanksgiving was celebrated with proper amounts of stuffing with good food. Mom takes holidays when company comes as a chance to make the food she usually doesn't make for just herself and dad, which meant pies and turkey and ham and stuffing and gravy and... I lost track. Dad makes the dressing from his mother's recipe, and you could founder yourself on it alone.

Steve over at Hog on Ice described his dinner, and the aftermath with the birds. Happily, the dogs don't make noises like that in the house, so I don't have to listen to that.

Michelle Malkin posted a recipe for pie. I'm going to make some more fudge; I found some chocolate chips that are 60% cocoa, and they make damn good fudge. The first batch went pretty fast since I shared it at work; I think this batch is going to the guy who's working on my pc. He says it's either the power supply or the motherboard; if the power, he has one that'll work, and if it's the board I need to find a new pc. I'm hoping for the power supply, I don't want to have to get another pc.

Michelle also linked to this mess. I wonder, if they are indeed who they're suspected to be, how diligent will the authorities be in tracking them down and making arrests? After all, don't want to interfere with their religeous beliefs, now do they?

I had some plans for proper levels of yelling about various crap, such as that bitch Sheehan making another pilgrimage to Crawford, but I'm too narced on turkey still for proper outrage. So later, folks

Did I ever mention I don't like working on ladders?

Or roofs? Well, down at my parents house there's a biiiig old cottonwood that's got some problems, especially in the biiig limb that stretches out over the house. So a chunk of today was spent in the roof helping dad take this limb down a piece at a time.

I did talk him into buying one of the power polesaws. That little chainsaw-on-a-stick is very nice for things like this, especially since you can whack off a section of limb without worrying about it falling on you.

However, that part is done. One more limb to help out with- it's not as heavy- and that'll be taken care of. Then I'm going to used dad's bullet sizing press to size and lube a few hundred .45 bullets. And mom has been cooking; God, it smells good around here!

This laptop keyboard is a bit of a pain, but the laptop is kind of handy, being able to check mail, etc., while I'm here. In any case, this is the only thing I plan to post until after Thanksgiving. Have a good day of it, folks.

Thanksgiving week

Let's see, various tv 'specials' I'll be skipping and, since I'm visiting my folks, probably enough food to founder me, Og and Kim together. Overall balance, a definate plus.

Over at Smallest Minority, read this letter to Sen. Kennedy(Dr. MA). Maybe someone can nail a copy to his door. If you can get past all the private security he shouldn't need since the police can take care of everything, right?

I tried my daughter's recipe for fudge, except I doubled the amount of pecans. Damn, that's good stuff! I found some chocolate chips that are 60% cocoa, which I think helps a bit.

I've got packing to do, and some stuff to pick up before I leave tomorrow, so...

Oh, one last thing. Mythbusters tested the idea that a pickup with the tailgate down/off gets better mileage and with the gate up. Result? Gate up gets noticeably better mileage. Turns out that with the gate up a vortex forms behind the cab that tends to direct the airstream over the bed; with the gate down/off, the vortex either doesn't form or is very weak and the airstream tends to wind up hitting the rear of the bed, causing drag. So I need to put the damn thing back on before I leave.

God, I wanna be on Mythbusters!

Come on, guys, I've got guns! I've got powder and can do metalwork! I wanna help blow things up!

But we'll use your gun for the stuff like I just watched. They decided to see if you could get a shotgun barrel to blow by sticking your finger in the barrel. So they took a 12 guage, made a synthetic bone/ballistic gel tissue hand, stuck the finger in the barrel, and pulled the trigger. Remotely, of course.

Result? One hand blown off of Buster, no damage to the gun. Twice. So then they used a ballistic wax hand(more rigid material) and managed to ring the barrel just back from the muzzle, but no 'banana peel' fracture. What next? They rammed the muzzle into a flowerbed and got a 8" dirt plug in the barrel, and fired with that. That split the barrel for about an inch or so and caused the vented rib to break loose and roll back, but no big split and no sign of damage to the ballistic gel head and shoulders in the shooters position.

So as a last resort, they cut the barrel back to get a square muzzle, ground a steel plug and welded it into the muzzle and fired it. And it blew the end off the barrel just behind the weld, and caused a small split. With still no damage to the 'shooter'.

So as a final test they took a Carcano rifle, pulled a bullet, hammered it into the barrel at the muzzle to simulate a squib and a stuck bullet, and fired it. It blew off about an inch or so at the muzzle(neatly amputating the bayonet mount), but not banana peel split.

Back when barrels were made of wrought iron I could see the type of split they were looking for happening; wrought iron is a lot softer than steel. But with steel barrels, especially modern ones, I much doubt it.

Damn, I want to work on that show.

Speaking of whining crybabies,

Powerline has this on the vote in the House the other day on Murtha's resolution. Result: take Murtha's idea and make the Dems actually vote on it for real, and they scream and moan about how it's a cheap attack on them.

Sorry boobs

Sunday morning thoughts

One of the things I've always treasured is the freedom we have here to scream and yell and state our opinions without fear of some clown in a trench coat asking for our papers and hauling us away. First time I really thought about it was when some court ruled that the communist party was free to put a candidate in an election. My dad was pissed, not thinking that a bunch of people wanting to destroy this country should be allowed to act openly on it. I tended to agree with him, but a part of me thought, hmmm, freedom of speech has to apply to everyone or it's in danger for all of us. I don't claim it as an original thought, I probably heard it somewhere in an argument or read it in an article(way pre-www), but it made me a bit uncomfortable; why should we let enemies of this country work openly to destroy it?

I thought about it at the time, and a lot since. I've decided I'm not an absolutist; I'd rather have people like the communists and socialists openly showing what they are so we can see them, but I do think there are limits. And I think actually calling for the death of our soldiers and our loss in war is over that line.

Oh, for the most part I don't like the idea of throwing people in jail for it; again, this shows us who the enemy is and how they think, it reveals the danger they pose. There is such a thing as treason and the other such charges, and when those laws are broken those who break them should be prosecuted.

What I am sick to death of is the clowns who scream "Dissent in the most patriotic act!" and so forth, when they don't actually dissent against a policy but against this country itself. The dipshits who scream "Don't question my patriotism!" to keep people from calling them on their most unpatriotic acts. Again, don't call for our troops to die, don't call for the enemy to win, don't call for censorship of those who disagree with you- don't try to silence those who disagree by trolling and spamming and hacking and shouting them down- and then defend yourself with that cry. And when you constantly call for various and sundry people to be killed and scream 'fascist' and so forth at anyone who argues with you, you're not in a good position to sound indignant over someone else turning it back on you(see Wizbang) I don't like it when anyone calls for killing someone else or destroying their life because they argue with you or have a different stand on matters, including someone on 'my own side' to some extent, I simply point out that the clowns at DU aren't in a good space to scream about evil threats when that's what makes up much of their idea of 'discussion'.

What brought this up was two things, this post at Michelle's and this one at Greyhawk. In the first, Michelle has posted some of the crap she receives, and it's the most vile racist garbage imaginable; it's like these idiots want to prove that if you appear to belong to some minority group you don't DARE speak out in any way that takes you off the reservation or they'll come after you. The other, Greyhawk has been posting tributes to troops who died in Iraq, and has received so many trolls etc. that she's decided to stop for now. These bastards can't argue with the policy, oh no, they have to redicule and threaten and demean those who are over there. Shitheads like this are the first ones who scream and whine when anyone challenges them on it. Got news for you folks; you ARE unpatriotic, and you ARE on the other side when you do crap like this.

I've apparently been lucky, the only such who've come by here have left one comment and gone away, but a lot of people have had all kinds of crap dumped on them for stating a non-PC thought. And our discourse has become somewhat nasty over the last decade or so, and much more so since 2000(gee, I wonder why?). And it's not helping. You don't convince someone that your idea is better by calling them names, or by ignoring their argument and attacking them personally, you just prove to them that your idea is no good; if it were good, you'd be able to argue it.

So far, this laptop is ok,

but I miss my full-size keyboard for one thing. And if I hit the end of a sentance and try to do a couple of line-feeds to drop to a new para, it won't do it for some damn reason. Which makes some things a pain. And is leading to run-on sentances like this.

Well, if this works I think I have a solution to the last, but I'll be glad to get my pc back. I hope.

I've been watching the Firefly dvd's, a bit at a time, and just finished the third episode. I'd forgotten how much I'd liked this series. And no, I kept forgetting to get out and see it, so I haven't seen Serenity yet; I may have to buy the DVD when it comes out if I can't catch it at the dollar theater. Hell, I may buy it anyway.

In any case, I have brass to sort and dogs to annoy, so 'nighty-night

Carnival of Cordite #39

up at Gullyborg. Lots of nice stuff, though I haven't been able to hit it all yet.

Computer problems suck

Specifically, a pc that won't boot up. More specifically, mine. So I'm posting this on a borrowed laptop until a friend finds out if my pc can be saved, or if it bit the big one this time.

It's actually a nice laptop, but the little drag-your-finger mouse screen will take some getting used to. But I can check my mail, and if some important thought crosses my mind(shut up) I can put it here.

I was trying to remember how old my pc is, and I'm not sure. I can't find the receipt anywhere, but I believe it's about 6 years old, maybe a bit more, and has worked quite well the whole time. I had a weird problem that turned out to be software related a year or so ago, and that turned out ok. I'm afraid this time it's either the drive or the motherboard. When it first began acting weird I backed up most of the stuff that had changed since my last one, and the only important to me stuff that's not I can replace pretty easily. So we'll see.