Western Wisdom

Interesting Video - New World Order Being Taught In Schools

2008-12-06T19:00:00.003-06:00

Wow, things have changed since I went to high school in the late 80's / early 90's.

Phun With Photography

2008-07-27T11:21:00.006-05:00

This is what happens when you (or at least when I) get a new camera to play with. One horses around with the camera to learn all the features, and of course, takes a few snapshots of anything handy at the moment. Sometimes you get lucky and end up with one just good enough to keep. Before you say it, yes I do have too much time on my hands.

Don't close your blinds

2008-01-11T13:40:00.000-06:00

This really touched my heart when I read it my first time. The author as far as I know is unknown, and I wanted to repost this for those that may have not read it yet. Please enjoy as I have.

The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war.My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He told him: "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?""I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses." he replied."OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."Our son giggled and said "OK.""Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said."OK Dad, I'm pretending.""Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and see that man come out of his house with his wife and he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face,he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and afraid of their father. You see all of this son.... What do you do?""Dad?""What do you do son?""I call the police, Dad.""OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?""Dad, but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine."They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says."But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims."I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children.""Daddy...he kills them?""Yes son, he does. What do you do?""Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." our son says."Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband says."But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!""WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry."OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?" "What Daddy?""He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in he window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?""Daddy...""WHAT DO YOU DO?"Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I close the blinds, Daddy."My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him..."Why?""Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help...people who need it....and they won't help....You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself ...Daddy.....I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and...and.....do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds..so I can't see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."I start to cry.My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window,looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands questions and he tells him...."Son""Yes, Daddy.""Open the blinds because that man.... he's at your front door..."WHAT DO YOU DO?"My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs my son to his chest and hugs him tight, and cries..."It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before......it's too late." my husband whispers.THAT scenario is why we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen is the greatest evil of all. Our President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must understand that this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove evil men from power so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not afraid to look out our window. So that my nine year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels that if he just "closes" that blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him."YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!"BE PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS!!BE PROUD OF OUR PRESIDENT SUPPORT THEM!!!SUPPORT AMERICA!!SO THAT IN THE FUTURE OUR CHILDREN WILL NEVER HAVE TO CLOSE THEIR BLINDS....

Merry Christmas

2007-12-19T13:58:00.000-06:00

Man, oh man. Things are so hectic around here. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day. I have so many things to do, it seems I will never get them done. Anyway, I told Joe I would help with this blogspot and it seems that time just keeps getting away from me. (and it looks like Joe also) I just wanted to be politically incorrect for a sec. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
And if you don't believe in Christmas, happy holidays. I know there are people out there that have Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and such, and I don't want to leave those people out. But, please let me keep Christmas. It seems people won't return the sentiment when you wish them a merry Christmas. We need to all get along especially this time of year. We all celebrate differently and there is nothing wrong with that. That being said, Merry Christmas.

P.S. My daughter, Which I haven't seen in about 13 years, contacted me through my myspace page. I WAS AND AM SO EXCITED!!!! It seems to be a slow process with our relationship, but I have faith that it will get better with time. So, please, If you divorce, please, do not deprive your ex of their child. ( with certain exceptions of course, i.e. child abuse, which should NEVER be tolerated.) All I can say is that her finding me is the best Christmas gift I could ever ask for.

Gun Control

2007-09-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

I have a message for all you liberals that may be reading this. LAY OFF GUN CONTROL! We don't need more gun control laws. We need to enforce the ones we already have. I am tired of hearing the whining and crying about how we need to make more gun control laws. NO WE DON'T! We can see what you are trying to do. You are trying to outlaw gun ownership. When this happens, let me show you what will happen. Firearm and severe crimes will increase. Think about it; when a criminal knows that people can no longer protect themselves properly they will have nothing to fear from law abiding citizens. Therefore, crime increases. We have nothing to fear from law-abiding gun owners. Instead of picking on law abiding gun owners lets focus on those who DO NOT abide by the law. Lets punish gun toting criminals with HARSHER PUNISHMENTS. They get their guns illegally anyway, so what makes you think that if you get rid of firearms they won't be able to get theirs either? There are so many guns on the black market it scares me. I will protect my family, so I WILL NOT GET RID OF MINE! I have been raised around firearms my whole life. NOT ONCE have I used a firearm illegally. NOR do I intend to. But if one breaks into my home in the middle of the night, they will learn the true meaning of gun control. I know I speak for millions of people when I say that. I borrowed the following from Andrew Wilkows Myspace page and I believe that we need to get the word out. Also if you have Sirius Satellite Radio Check out Andrew Wilkows show on 144 starting @ 11:00 a.m. CDT.

25 Point Firearms Refresher
FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE

1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.

2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.

3. Colt: The original point and click interface.

4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.

5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?

6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.

7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.

8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.

9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

10. The United States Constitution (c)1791. All Rights Reserved.

11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?

12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.

13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.

14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.

15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.

16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.

17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.

18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.

19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.

20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.

21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.

22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.

23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.

24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.

25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

Andrew tells it like it is and I appreciate all he and people like him do for our country.
POWER TO THE MEOPLE!

PLEASE WATCH OUT FOR BIKERS

2007-07-23T12:56:00.000-05:00

I ride a motorcycle once in a while, and I have come across a problem. People DO NOT watch for bikers. Case in point; Saturday I had a woman almost run me into a wall. She never looked in her mirrors to see if it was clear. She just came over to my lane. She had three kids in the back seat whose eyes got as big as saucers. Think about this: If she had hit me (I always watch and try to anticipate before they know what they are going to do. And it has kept me alive and wreck free on a bike so far.) what would those kids may have seen would quite possibly have been traumatic for them. I may have lost a limb (gruesome), or may have been killed. What would that have done to those kids? They may have been messed up for life or at the very least been scarred for life. You don't ever get that picture out of your head. About one mile later, I almost got ran over by a police car that was getting on the interstate with lights going. No siren, just lights. I had to hit the shoulder to keep from getting hit. You may not know me or even like me, I don't care. What I do care about is that I and other bike riders can ride safely without worrying about getting run over. But as long as there is inattentive driving we will have to watch out for you BEFORE you see us. Just like when around a big rig, PLEASE GIVE US ROOM. It doesn't take as long to stop as a truck, but if we have to shut our bike down in a hurry, it can be dangerous, so we need a bit more room. AND PLEASE signal so a rider knows your intention is so we can compensate to prevent a wreck or our death or dismemberment. Thanks for letting me vent. And a BIG THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE SAFE DRIVERS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES.

Been busy

2007-07-17T13:45:00.001-05:00

Hello again, sorry it has been so long since my last post but I have been VERY BUSY at work lately and with my son's ball games I just haven't had time to get on the computer. We have been at least two drivers down at work for the last few months. (sometimes three) And seeing as this is our busiest time of year and being short drivers, it has been a very hectic past few months. Now that our injured drivers are back, maybe I can find the time to do some more posts. Anyway thats all for now, I have just checked one of my email accts and see I have over 7000 emails to sort through. Just wanted everyone to know I'm still alive and kicking just really busy right now.

I'm Almost Back

2007-06-22T10:58:00.000-05:00

It seems I've been slacking off in regards to blogging lately, as well as most of my usual internet activities in general. Well, I'm going to kick off a series of posts over the coming months, provided I remember to, another provision being if all goes as planned behind the scenes.

This series of posts will swing away from any political rants I that may be brewing inside of me (yes I still loathe liberalism), and I will be covering a computer buildup I'm getting started on.

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

Hmmmm, could it be true?

2007-01-26T16:31:00.000-06:00

I heard something interesting on the radio today. ( I'm not sure if its true. )I heard about a PBS special called SKYSCRAPERS that showed a while back that was talking about skyscrapers around the U.S. including the twin towers in New York along with their locations. The program showed some of the design flaws in the buildings. In the program, they talked about how the buildings had been evacuated at least once during a windstorm because of the swaying of the buildings in New York. They also showed how through the design of the structures, they were to PANCAKE if they were to be hit by a POSSIBLE AIRLINER by ACCIDENT. Could this be a coincidence? If Al-Qaida was to have seen this would the media not think that they might use this information? They would definitely use the info to study it at least. IF THIS IS TRUE (which I hope not) why would the media let this info out. Why would the government let this information out? Blame is being placed from the little people all the way up to our President, still. Could it be the incompetence of the media and everyone involved in shows like this for the 9-11 attack? Or is this just another conspiracy theory? Who knows. But it makes one think anyway.

It's over!

2007-01-04T13:12:00.000-06:00

Well, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. As most people did, I'm sure, I spent WAY TOO MUCH money! But, My family truly enjoyed the gifts they received. Although, next year I am going to try to buy them things I wanted to this year. Anyway, I wanted to also wish everyone a Happy New Year.

"Yesterday we suffered from crimes; Today we suffer from laws"

Later

Time for the holidays

2006-11-18T18:06:00.000-06:00

This is hard for me to do. Wishing everyone in a sincere way, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. The reason behind this is that I spent 16 years in retail. Every year they started putting out holiday items out earlier and earlier. I just got burned out. Even though I got burned out I still believe that you should wish people "Happy Thanksgiving" and "MERRY CHRISTMAS". It should NOT be "Holiday Season" it should be "Christmas". If you don't like it then you can leave. It has been "Christmas" as long as I have been alive. I AM NOT going to change it. The libs took prayer out of schools; took away the christian part of Christmas out of schools; (I am talking about the manger scene) but they never tried to take out witches and goblins. I am tired of people being WIMPS and CRYBABYS and whining about wanting "political correctness". I for one will NOT be politically correct. So for all you wimpy libs out there that may be reading this : Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving' A VERY Merry CHRISTMAS, and a Happy New Year. ( By the way I am getting over being burned out on the holiday season little by little. Maybe there is hope for me yet.

Back to Dentist Day

2006-11-14T13:45:00.000-06:00

I'm heading back to the dentist in about an hour for treatment of the notorious dry socket. Ooh, how fun! On the bright side, the dry socket isn't as painful as the toothache it replaced, but make no mistake about it, it still hurts. I will be really glad when this is all over and done with!

Update (6:30 PM) Just got back home from town from being at the dentist and then the apothacary. It is a dry socket and I have to go back Friday afternoon for another session of having it packed with that nasty tasting dry socket paste. Which, I might add is totally ruining the flavor of my tomato soup. It's a conspiracy against my tastebuds!

Another plus which I wasn't expecting, they aren't charging for the dry socket treatments, no matter how many visits it takes; Dr. Arthur and staff rock!

Al-Qaeda Won't Rest

2006-11-10T11:47:00.000-06:00

Apparently the Al-Qaeda won't rest until the White House is destroyed. Why, they supposedly even have a whopping 12,000 fighters ready to go. Don't sweat it Al-Qaeda scum, the dems in office will do most of your dirty work for you, or didn't you keep up with the elections and pay thanks to the sheeple mentality of liberal voters?

Dentist Day: Return From

2006-11-08T21:27:00.000-06:00

I left for the dentist at around 2:15 pm and got to the office about 2:40 pm, filled out the paperwork and was back in the exam room around 3:30 pm. They did several X-Rays of my teeth and then went to work on me right at 4:00pm, he didn't want to send me home with a tooth that bad and me in that much pain. It ended up being oral surgery instead of a simple extraction, and the surgery didn't end until right at 7:00 pm.

It seems I am quite resistant to the local anesthetic so he had to pump me full of three syringes from the start, then another shot directly to the tooth's nerve. I went through that once every 45 minutes or so, as the anesthetic was wearing off very quickly. One of the wisdom tooth's roots was fairly straight, while the other one was curled under (not curled out) like a fish-hook, literally in a 180 degree arc. Once he cut the tooth in two pieces, he had to pry the straight end out, and once it was out he went to work on the other one. He literally had to cut into my jawbone with the little power saw to get the tooth out, which he still had to carefully twist completely upside-down before it came out.

What made it worse was he said I had the strongest gag reflex he'd ever seen. I screwed up two X-Rays by gagging while the X-Ray was taken due to movement from my gagging on the little plate you bite on. He numbed my tongue special with local anesthetic to help reduce the gagging reflex, which helped but didn't eliminate it completely. He still had to stop and give me several 5 to 10 minute breaks to calm my gagging self down and regain some calmness before he'd go back after it. He said he's had some gaggers before, but I won the prize for gaggiest patient of all time (hooray me!). He also said I was the most difficult case as far as actual tooth removal he'd had in well over a year.

After it was all said and done, he said if he knew how difficult this procedure was going to be I probably would have been charged double what it cost me. I don't blame him, it was a doozie of a time for everyone concerned. The surgical tooth extraction itself ran about $165 (it would've been $55 if he could have just rocked it out of the socket), and with the other fees, it ran up to $280 for the one tooth and the whole visit. Whew! Got the good stuff though, Percocet for the pain which he said I'd be really sore tomorrow after having my jaw wrenched open for 3 straight hours, plus all the needles going into the jaw muscle, plus the jawbone having been sawn into, not to mention the incisions to the gums, and the extracted tooth socket itself. It took three stitches to close me back up, though he used the self-absorbing kind of suture thread, so at least I don't have to go back to have the stitches taken out.

Even as uncomfortable, painful, and unpleasant as the actual procedure was, the doctor and all his staff were absolutely the best people I'd ever dealt with. So much so that even though the procedure itself was unpleasant, the overall experience was a pleasant experience that left me in a good mood and with a very favorable impression of himself, his office, the and staff.

Dentist Day

2006-11-08T10:23:00.000-06:00

Oh the joys of being me. I got shoehorned in to the dentist's office for a visit this afternoon. Wisdom teeth are giving me the fits, especially the bottom right one which half of it decided to crumble into a bunch of tiny pieces exposing the soft dentin and the nerve. Ouch! Didn't hardly sleep a wink last night from the pain, which would conveniently spike right as I'd start to drift off, jolting me back to a wide-awake state. Probably my luck will be just a few X-Rays today and then be rescheduled for extraction a week or two later, just so I can enjoy the pain and suffering and feeling like my whole head is going to explode. I've noticed dentists can be cruel like that, just for kicks I think. If I think about it, I might post an update on the situation here in this entry later this evening.

Saddam Gets Death Penalty

2006-11-05T09:01:00.000-06:00

Looks like they gave Saddam Hussein a sentence of death by hanging. I guess that there's still justice in this world after all! But it ain't over yet, not till he's actually hanging lifelessly by the neck from a rope. I wish I could be there to see it all happen when they string him up. Now if I could just get a mailing address so I can mail him a "die slowly and suffer greatly" card.

I'm Heartless and Evil!

2006-11-03T13:58:00.000-06:00

Heisted from Kurt over at A Trainwreck in Maxwell

Which South Park kid are you most like?

Cartman

You are just plain evil and heartless. Though you're sly, and you come up with brilliant schemes, you're pretty dumb and close minded. Other people hate you... screw them!

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Red Wing Boots: Thumbs Up!

2006-11-03T08:10:00.000-06:00

Around a year or so ago I broke down and bought a new pair of Red Wing 970 motorcycle boots. Finding a pair turned out to be a pain since the nearest Red Wing dealer was about 50 miles away (Boot Hill in Valdosta, GA) and they specialized in western style boots. I ended up having to try on a similar pair of wellingtons and then special ordering the actual boots I wanted through Boot Hill and having them drop-shipped from the Red Wing warehouse directly to my home. What a pain just to get a decent pair of boots!

Here's the thing though: I've tried wearing cheap shoes and boots and can't get away with it. They end up killing my feet after just an hour or two of wearing them (not to mention the fact that they start to fall apart within the first 6 months of owning them), so I have to be fairly selective about what goes on the ol' feetsies.

Anyhow, ordering the boots wasn't really the problem, it's my forgetfulness that's the problem. I was low on boot and leather care products in general and forgot to pick some stuff up while I was up in Valdosta. I even wrote a list of stuff I needed like boot oil and hoof-black. Don't laugh, hoof black works just as well as sole and heel dressing and costs less per measured unit, you just have to go the feed store to get it. Back to the forgetfulness before I forget to finish the story. I even remembered to take the list with me, and had it in my pocket, but I forgot the list was in my pocket, forget to check the list, and ended up coming home with nothing but a receipt for the boots I ordered.

No problem, I'll just get some leather care products here locally the next time I go to town. Seems people around here don't take care of their leather, there wasn't anyplace that sold anything for leather care around here except for regular old Kiwi shoe polish at Wally-World. No kidding, last time I looked, I couldn't even find any saddle soap there.

Anyhoo, a few days later the friendly UPS driver delivered a package with my boots in them. So much for the quoted two-week wait, they came in about 3 days after placing the order. I was impressed enough to fire off to Red Wing a thank you note via e-mail praising them for their swift handling and delivery of my order. In the e-mail I sent them I asked if they had any plans on selling their leather care products online (Red Wing does not sell any of their products online, only through authorized brick-and-mortar stores) and explained that I was out in the boondocks and it was a pretty far piece to go to get to a dealer, and the local establishments apparently didn't believe in selling any kind of leather care products at all. (That still gripes me how crappy and bass-ackwards these little towns around here are).

Less than 5 hours later I received a response from Red Wing, which again surprised me as I really wasn't expecting any answer at all, considering that 95% of all companies I contact via e-mail with questions about their products or services never respond at all, and on the rare occasion they do it's closer to 3 or 4 weeks before I hear anything from them. Well, not only did Red Wing respond in a timely manner, but it was the head of the marketing dept. that returned my e-mail to me. He said they were looking into the idea of selling care products online but hadn't made any firm decisions as to whether they would or not in the near future. He thanked me for my commending them on their swift fulfillment of my boot order and asked for confirmation of my mailing address and order number, so I fired off another response answering his confirmation request and thanking him for his swift reply to my e-mail and that it left me with a favorable impression of their business on a whole.

As far I was concerned, the whole exchange was finished and decided I'd just head back up to Valdosta the next time I had the chance with the specific purpose of getting the leather care products I needed. It turns out that trip wasn't necessary at all, since two days after the e-mail exchange with Red Wing I received not one, but two boxes in the mail from them. I wondered what the heck was this? I opened the first box and inside were full-size products including tubs of Mink Oil, Leather Conditioner, and a few bottles of Boot Oil. In the second box found Silicone Waterproofing, Leather Dressing, and a note saying thanks for contacting them and that they hope these gifts they sent will meet my needs, and that if I had any more questions or comments to feel free to contact them any time. Wow! I was like a kid on Christmas morning opening presents under the tree. Not only did they save me a trip back up to Georgia, but they sent me enough leather care products to last me for the next 5 years!

Needless to say, I'm more than impressed with Red Wing now, and my impression with their boot quality is more than favorable. A year later and boots are still like brand-new and and just as comfortable as the day I put them on for the first time. The leather is thick and heavy too unlike lesser brands, but still supple and flexible. Though I don't plan on trying it, I believe they'd hold up to taking a spill at triple-digit speeds without the asphalt eating all the way through them, and thinking about it I bet they'd make great boots for welding, I think they'd hold up to hot slag dropping on them much better than lesser boots and possibly save your foot from the slag burning all the way through the leather and leaving a nice crispy spot on top of the foot. Not that I'm going to purposely try and test that theory either, but it's nice to know they build 'em tough enough to handle a truckload of abuse.

In any event, with customer support like that and product quality to match, I've found a brand I think I'm going to stick with for quite some time to come. They seem to be holding up way better than the any of the other brands I've put through their paces, plus they're much more comfortable to boot (pun intended). I'd never bought a pair of Red Wings before because I thought they were always a bit too pricey, though actually affordable compared to the likes of super-premium brands such Wesco or CruiserWorks, but after wearing them for a while now, I'm kicking myself (again the pun is intended) for not buying them sooner, because quite frankly, they're worth ever penny.

Thanks, Red Wing, for putting the customer first.

Finally an apology

2006-11-02T14:15:00.000-06:00

It seems that Mr. Kerry has apologized for PART of what he has said. Even people in his own party has had enough of his mouth. I doubt that will change anything, but at least it is a start.
Now if we can get him and his whole party to see the light.

Can't keep his big mouth shut

2006-11-01T11:54:00.000-06:00

John Kerry has a very big problem. He can not keep his mouth shut when he should. He tends to say things then change his tune. "I actually meant this." B.S. He meant everything he has said. Then he doesn't apologize for anything. One thing that has me riled up is when he said " Go to school and get smart or go to Iraq." He says he was talking about Bush. Then answer me this Mr. Kerry; If you think you are so much smarter, why is it that President Bush made better grades at Yale than you did? You say Bush is stupid, then maybe you are more stupid than you let on. Maybe someone needs to put you in your place. And I am the politically incorrect idiot to do it. I am sure that there are others that feel the same way I do. Think before you open your mouth. You only have two feet to stick in there. Unless you have your head stuck so far up your own butt to get them in there, although I think there is still plenty of room.

I'm blaming it all on Busch

2006-10-27T14:59:00.000-05:00

Yes, you heard me right, I'm giving credit where credit is due. Everyone wants to blame Bush for all the world's woes; well I say let's blame it on Busch.

1. I have a terrible hangover. The NSA mind-probes that Bush controls must be the cause right? Wrong. Blame it on Busch.

2. I was in a fight at a bar and got arrested. Was it the gang-stalkers picking on me that were sent by the Bush administration? Nope it was a bunch of drunks. Blame it on Busch.

3. Some inebriated driver lost control of his vehicle and ran over a group of small children. Surely that was the mind-control technologies that Bush is in charge of that made him do it, right? Sorry, gotta blame it on Busch.

4. Is it Bush's fault that the divorce rate is as high as it is here in America? I've heard people trying to blame Bush for it, but I have a hunch it's more likely Busch's fault.

5. Alcoholism is a problem in the United States. Which is more likely the case: is it Bush's fault or Busch's fault? You be the judge.

6. All the litter on the side of the road after a long weekend must surely be Bush's doing you say. I say it's Busch's fault though, and the labels on the cans and bottles prove it.

So there you have it: it's all Busch's fault.

With all the problems that Busch has caused, I say we sit back and enjoy a nice ice cold Samuel Adams instead. Then we can all sit back and say it isn't Busch's fault after all. It's Sam Adams' fault. My, what a vicious circle this could become.

Reviving Old Ideas

2006-10-23T09:36:00.000-05:00

It's been a long weekend for yours truly. I've been kicking around an idea so much that it made my brain hurt. Either that or my toothache is migrating to my thinker. Perhaps both.

Anyways, I was talking to Patrick the other day and he got me to thinking. Yes, Patrick, it's your fault, sort of, but it's not a bad thing you're taking the blame for. Patrick mentioned a certain idea and it revived an old desire of mine. So I thought about it, then I thunk on it a bit more, then my brain started to implode so I decided to quite thunking and just lightly ponder on the idea for bit. (No, I'm not saying what the idea is just yet, not unless something more solid surfaces first, plus it's fun to leave people hanging for a while.)

What I will tell you is that it's a sort of business venture. I don't have the capital necessary for such an undertaking, but I'm talking to someone about making the investment, while I do the dirty-work (read: manual labor). It's a doozie of idea (that's idear to you yankees) that's certain to pay off with decent profits in a timely manner, unless the mind-control signals from the secret Illuminati satellites turn us all into mindless zombies first.

What this basically means is that if I can obtain the the initial startup moola, which isn't really all that much in the grand scheme of things, I'll be on the road to a profitable and exciting career that's bound to take me places; both figuratively and literally.

Doctors vs Guns

2006-10-16T17:05:00.000-05:00

This has been floating around for six or seven years at least, but I thought I'd share it anyways since not everyone on the internet has had seen it yet.

Doctors vs. Guns in the U.S.

Number of physicians in the US = 700,000

Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year = 120,000

Accidental deaths per physician = 0.171 (Source: U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)

Number of gun owners in the US = 80,000,000

Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups) = 1,500

Accidental deaths per gun owner = 0.0000188 (Source: U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms)

Therefore, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

We need to hurry up and get some legislation banning doctors from this country before it's too late!

It Never Fails to Rain...

2006-10-16T13:19:00.000-05:00

I just got finished detailing the truck. I washed it, waxed it, vacuumed it out, put protectant on the dash and vinyl, tire shine on the tires, and just when I get done it starts to rain. It's a never fail thing for me, whenever I need it to rain, I just have to wash the truck.

Nothing To Say

2006-10-14T21:26:00.000-05:00

I have absolutely nothing to say right now.

That is all.

Navy SEAL Dies a True Hero

2006-10-13T20:05:00.000-05:00

News story HERE.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor died saving other SEAL team members by throwing himself on a live enemy grenade.

Rest in peace sailor, you are a true hero and will not be forgotten.

Pyrodex Dilemma

2006-10-13T11:33:00.000-05:00

I just got back home from taking a trip into town earlier to try and find some muzzleloading supplies. I came home rather disappointed though. I walk into the gun shop and ask the proprietor of that there establishment if he's got blackpowder and/or substitutes in 1 lb. cans, and where the other muzzleloading supplies are hidden at. He says he's got a large selection of stuff at the back of the store, and that he's got everything as far as blackpowder goes except for Goex. I thought to myself that this was fine, a one stop shop for all I needed. Wrong.

I looked around for all the stuff I'd need and all he had was CVA and Traditions brand stuff priced sky high. No Knight, Hornady, T/C, Barnes, Nosler, etc. He wanted $8.99 for 5 oz. of CVA bore lube, $12.99 for 4 or 5 oz. of CVA blackpowder solvent, and $19.99 for 20 powerbelt bullets. That seemed excessively expensive to me for some strange reason, and I was wanting Hornady 410 gr. Great Plains conicals or 300 gr. XTP Mag sabots, which I know I can get in packages of 20 or 30 for less than this guy's 20 Powerbelts. Heck, he even wanted $4.99 for a bronze .50 cal bore brush.

I decided to pass on the stuff he had and just get some Pyrodex RS while I was there. He said he didn't have that, nor did he have any Pioneer, Black Magic, Elephant, nor other brands; all he had was Jim Shockey Gold for $25.99 lb., and Hodgdon Triple Se7en for $24.99 lb., despite his telling me had everything except Goex, so I said no thanks and went to Wally-World which I loathe going to.

Wally-World ended up being a joke for front-stuffer stuff too. They had a section about 2 ft wide and 3 ft high on the shelves dedicated to muzzleloading stuff, mostly patches and ramrod accessories. The powders they had to choose from was 1 lb. of Triple Se7en for $25.49 or 1 lb. of Pyrodex FFg RS for $16.69. They had next to nothing for conicals or sabots, so I came home empty handed except for a pound of Pyrodex RS which came to $17.86 after tax. I feel ripped-off. Seems to me that Pyrodex RS was selling for about $10 or $12 per pound a few years ago. I know I can still get it that cheap online, but there's a $20 Haz-Mat shipping fee they tack on, which I figure isn't worth it unless I'm buying in bulk, which I can't afford to do right now.

The rest of the supplies I'll order online at Midway USA or Midsouth Shooters Supply, where the selection of stuff is far more broad, and much cheaper. I believe in supporting the local community businesses first, but not when they try and take you for as much as they can while trying to make it sound like you're getting a good deal.

Am I being unrealistic with my expectations?

Magellan MAP 330 GPS

2006-10-12T13:06:00.000-05:00

I've got a Magellan GPS unit, called the MAP 330. Well, according to Magellan's website it's an old product or as they call it, a "Legacy" item. Huh? The thing is only 5 years old! To me that's practically still brand-spanking-new. All my other electronic products are between 5 and 25 years old and still supported by the manufacturers for parts and repairs, firmware upgrades, etc.

Anyways, I contacted their technical service dept. because when I registered my Magellan MAP 330 GPS unit but they never notified me of any firmware updates being made available. Well, there were several updates made available by them, including a nice firmware upgrade that allows searching by address from the GPS unit itself instead of just the mapping program, which could be very handy at times.

Lo and behold, I never found out about these updates until just about a week ago. I checked their website and they don't offer the firmware upgrade download on their site anymore. So I sent their technical service dept. a request on how to get the update via their online contact form. So far it's been a week and still no response from them. I'm not impressed with their lack of prompt response times. I'll give them another week and see what happens, and nothing happens I'll see if I can find a toll-free number and call them to see why they haven't responded to my online submission via their website. Still, I have a hunch if I were inquiring about a brand-new $500 GPS unit they'd have already contacted me.

Yes, my product is out of warranty, but it's a downloadable software update we're talking about here. Heck, I've had other companies send me free replacement parts for products I own that were 10 years or more out of warranty. I guess we'll wait and see what happens, but if I can't get a decent response from them, and ever decide to buy another GPS unit, you can bet it won't be a Magellan. I wonder how efficient Garmin's technical service dept. is?

And no the MAP 330 isn't WAAS enabled, but I don't need that level of precision anyhow; and I still know my way around a map and compass too, for all you traditionalists out there.

U.N.’s Latest Proposal to Punish North Korea is a Joke

2006-10-12T09:40:00.000-05:00

FOX News has the story.

This is just further proof of the U.N.’s worthlessness. They’ve managed to refine the proposal to punish North Korea down to nothing more than a light slap on the back of the hand. Basically they’re saying something like "You were very naughty and we’re really disappointed in you, so now you have to go to bed after supper for a week without getting any dessert".

Think about it: a very bad man with nuclear weapons is threatening you and all you do is wag your finger at him and say "That’s not very nice"? Is the U.N. made up of a bunch of dope-head hippies?

Good golly-gee! Last time my neighbor’s mean-spirited German Shepherd growled and snapped at me, I didn’t run off crying foul-play, I unholstered my revolver and peppered his butt with CCI Snake-Shot, ready to seal the deal with a follow-up Federal Hydra-Shok if necessary. The Hydra-Shok wasn’t necessary, the snake-shot got the message across just fine and the dog runs off when he sees me now, but I’d have been more than willing to put him down permanently. (Edit: To clarify this point, I think that's metaphorically the type of action we need to take against Kim Jong Il, instead of doing the U.N. pansy-dance for him.)

Furthermore, when you see a rabid animal frothing at the mouth you don’t try and wack it across the nose with a rolled-up newspaper, you put it down quickly and efficiently from a safe distance. North Korea’s Kim Jong Il is that rabid animal ready to attack, and the U.N. is showing it’s bare ass and just waiting to get bit. Hello? Earth to United Nations...

Plane Crashes Into NY Building

2006-10-11T20:19:00.000-05:00

Read news article HERE.

I wondered how long it would take before someone started spouting off asinine conspiracy theories about it or even try to blame it on Bush, but lo and behold I didn't have to wait very long.

The nutjob blogger James F. Marino delivered the goods with this post on his blog.

You can read my original post on this wacko by clicking HERE.

The guy is certainly more than a few straw short of a bale, but as long as you don't take him too seriously he's good for a few laughs, if nothing else.

Kim Jong Il Perhaps Not So Looney

2006-10-11T12:37:00.000-05:00

Is Kim Jong Il ill? Most people talk as though they think the guy has completely lost his mind. At first I thought so too, but now that I've had a chance to really sit and think about it, I'm not so sure. In fact, I think he knows exactly what he's doing and think he's got a 90% chance of getting away with it. Just look at how Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been thumbing his nose at the U.S. and the U.N. and getting away with it, then consider that ol' Kim Jong Il is just following his lead and taking it further. If the U.N. lets one nation get away with breaking "international law", why shouldn't he get away with it too? He wants attention and he's getting it, plain and simple. The squeaky wheel is the one that gets the grease. Maybe he's in cahoots with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Kim Jong Il causes a major stir, diverting attention away from Iran so they can enrich their uranium for nuclear weapons, and slip some to North Korea for their weapons in exchange.

Now, even though I don't agree with the politics and belief systems of these nutjobs like Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I do tip my hat to them for one reason: They refuse to acknowledge this so called "international law" and they don't pay much mind to the U.N. which is nothing more than a bunch of overpaid, better-than-thou, self-appointed world dictators. These two corrupt, twisted, perverted, etc., leaders of North Korea and Iran may be on everyone's most hated list, but give credit where credit is due and at least thank them for helping show the world what a worthless and idiotic bunch of morons the U.N. really is. They say piss on the U.N. and their international law and so do I. But that's as far as it goes; after that I'd like to get within shooting range of either one of the sick bastards, Hugo Chavez too for that matter, and put a bullet in their craniums.

Yep, they hate America, seems like everyone does these days, but having allowed politicians in office like Bill and Hillary Clinton, having let our country be overrun with illegal immigrants (foreign invaders) and do practically nothing about it, not driving the left-wing nuts into the ocean, etc., don't we at least deserve a bit of scorn and reproach for that alone? After all, in a way, it is our fault for letting the liberals get our country this far out of whack instead of putting the boot their asses before they got a good start.

Still yet, I say God Bless America, and quickly, someone needs to clone Ronald Reagan before it's too late.

Computer Problems

2006-10-10T17:48:00.000-05:00

I've been experiencing computer problems for the past several days and was at wits end as to a solution. I ended up giving in and doing a full reformat of my hard-drive. After having reinstalled everything I wanted and left off a bunch of crap I didn't want, my computer seems to be running like a champ. I hope it stays that way this time.

Fun With Photoshop

2006-10-04T20:29:00.000-05:00

Today I saw what will probably be the last rose of the year in bloom. I decided to take it's picture and then play around with it in Photoshop.

Orchard Spider

2006-10-03T18:49:00.000-05:00

This is an Orchard Spider, also called an Orchard Orbweaver, or Leucauge Venusta. It took up residence between two Yaupon Holly bushes in front of the house. It's been feasting well for the last few weeks on those pesky Love Bugs which have just about petered-out for the season. I believe they are supposed to be found throughout the United States, but I don't ever remember seeing any in North Carolina or Oklahoma, just here in Florida.

My Supper

2006-10-01T18:57:00.000-05:00

Mmm... grilled cheese sandwiches...

Qoute of the Day

2006-09-30T11:37:00.000-05:00

"We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look." -- Ronald Reagan

It finally happened

2006-09-28T14:57:00.000-05:00

Well, it finally happened. I was involved in an accident yesterday because someone got in too big of a hurry. As some of you may know, I drive a semi-truck for a living. I was making a TIGHT right hand turn into one of my customers parking lot. Because it was such a narrow turn, my trailer had to leave the right hand lane to make it. As I was getting ready to turn I turned on my signal showing which way I needed to turn. I then blocked BOTH north bound lanes so people behind me could see my intentions. I also almost came to a complete stop. During my turn even though my trailer left the right hand lane my tractor was in the right hand lane. The person that was in too big of a hurry tried to pass on the right hand side of me. WHICH IS WRONG TO BEGIN WITH! Left side = passing side Right side= suicide. Come on people, use some GOD GIVEN COMMON SENSE! (wait. I forgot. Some don't have any common sense.)
Anyway, maybe this post is just to get some road rage off my chest before I use road rage on the roads and some one gets hurt or worse. The good news is that no-one was hurt. Just some damage to vehicle. People PLEASE give trucks plenty of room. I know there truckers out there that shouldn't be driving because they are way too aggressive. Thanks for letting me vent.

Abridgement of Freedom

2006-09-27T14:01:00.000-05:00

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison

Food for thought.

Time Erodes All

2006-09-25T16:35:00.000-05:00

I took this photo of an old 1947 Cadillac and post processed it trying to give it an infrared (or at least near infrared) look. I really like how it made the rust spots and sun-faded paint come alive to give this relic of an bygone era a touch of extra character.

Morgellons Disease

2006-09-25T11:55:00.000-05:00

There's an interesting article on Morgellons disease, the condition that isn't recognized as being real by many doctors and scientists, even though the physical symptoms seem to be quite noticeable. Read about it on NewsOK.com.

I've heard of this disease before, and it seems most common in Florida and Texas, though there seem to be cases popping up all over the country. It'll be interesting to see where the research leads to with this one.

I'm generally skeptical about things like these, but for some reason my gut instinct is telling me there's something very real and extremely serious with this... whatever it is.

Freedom

2006-09-24T21:21:00.000-05:00

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." -- Ronald Reagan

Mail Delivery: Senseo Coffee Machine

2006-09-20T15:08:00.000-05:00

The USPS pulled up and delivered a package for me about half an hour ago. Inside the box was a free Senseo coffee machine that I got directly from Philips. I figured since they were kind enough to send it to me with a package full of the little coffee pods that I'd go ahead and give it a try. It's quite a bit bigger than I imagined it would be, since I've never seen one before at the store.

They sent the medium roast coffee pods, and using a large mug (to fill it I either had to press the double cup button once and the single cup button once; or the single cup button 3 times) it made a pretty decent cup of coffee that's just a tad on the weak side. A single medium-roast pod using the double-cup button makes it just about the right strength, though I would prefer a darker roast, which will be what I buy at the store.

I figured it'll cost a tad more per cup than bulk drip coffee and filters, about 2.5 to 3 cents per cup depending on where you buy the pods, whereas regular drip coffee and filters equals out to around 7 cents for a whole pot. Still a heck of a lot cheaper than a buck for a cup of truck-stop coffee at the Flying-J, or that pseudo-hippie left-wing nuevo-riche Starpukes joint where you pay about 7 bucks for two swallows of hot water that tastes like they might have dragged a coffee bean through it.

Anyways, the Senseo critter seems like a good idea for the time being. Single servings of fresh-brewed coffee on demand, hardly any waiting. Auto-shutoff so you don't burn down your house. But not sure I'd be willing to pay retail for the machine itself, I'm a bit of a cheapskate and $60 to $75 retail for one of those critters seems kind of steep to me, especially when I can get drip machine at Big-Lots for about $10+tax.

Plecia Nearctica: Love Bugs

2006-09-19T16:47:00.000-05:00

Plecia nearctica, they're everywhere. Once again it's their season. They're out in force and mating like crazy. They're nasty too, the 28 mile round trip to town and back left the front of the truck covered in them. One trip like that smears up the windshield so bad that it has to be washed after every trip. They are a major pain in the butt, and what makes it worse is the stuff in their little carcasses rapidly eats the paint of any vehicle. They have to be kept washed off and the paint waxed at least weekly during this time of year, to keep visible damage from occurring. What makes it worse is they are attracted to vehicle exhaust, so they cloud the roadways and swarm you when you're stopped. Heck, they were so thick in the air when I was mowing the lawn yesterday I just about had to wear a respirator to keep from inhaling any.

At least the local plethora of tree-frogs and skinks are eating well.

Website Text & Backgrounds

2006-09-18T18:31:00.000-05:00

Fox News changed the format of their website http://www.foxnews.com, and quite frankly I liked it the old way better. The format change prompted me to rant a little bit. Their new format is too bright. I hate text on a white background on the internet. It's fine for paper, but it sucks when reading on a monitor.

Here's the deal, and more and more people are starting to say the same. Staring at a screen that is mostly white is about as bad as staring directly at a soft-white lightbulb. It begins to hurt your eyes after a short while. A lot of people are finding that a slightly darker background or a dark background with light text is far easier on the eyes, since a monitor is backlit. In essence, a monitor really is like a big lightbulb with text, colors, and pictures.

Of course there are the funky colored text on colored backgrounds can get pretty awful too. Ever try to read a site with red letters against a funky brown background or lime green letters against blue? Okay, those are the exceptions, but they are out there and I generally click away from them as soon as they load.

Anyways, I haven't yet had any complaints about my format yet, though I'm sure they will come. I tried to get a mix of background shading that doesn't hurt the eyes, isn't too bright or too dark, which lets the black text show with plenty of contrast. For me, it's easy to read, easy to see, doesn't give me headache looking at it. But then again, I went through any number of variations until I hit on something that (at least to me) didn't look awful.

Bona Fide Nutjob Blogger

2006-09-16T13:15:00.000-05:00

Normally I don't go around insulting other people's blogs, but I'm going to make an exception in this case. As I was browsing through the various blogs on the internet, I stumbled across this guy's blog, who calls himself "James F. Marino" and named his blog "9-11 The Mother Of All Black Operations".

This guy is so far out in left field he's not even in the park. He claims he's the subject of government mind control techniques, but truth be told, I think he's more like the subject of controlled substance abuse. Now I thought maybe this dude was just doing some short rants for amusement, but his posts go on and on and on, and it's in every post of his, which seems to be pretty darn regular. This guy has some serious problems if he really believes the B.S. he's spouting off about, and frankly, he probably belongs in a room with padded walls and floors.

Since he deletes all comments that disagree with his, I'm posting about it here where he can't delete anything, nor do jack about it.

He's being stalked and harassed by the U.S. Government -- Sure, after all the government has nothing better to do with it's time. Dude, if the government had a problem with you, they'd either kill you or lock you away somewhere for the rest of your life.

He's a subject of government mind control -- James, if that really is your name, if the government really was controlling your mind, don't you think they'd keep you from publishing this so-called secret information you have on them?

The government is paying street gangs to harass him in his neighborhood -- Yep, live in a bad area and act like a nut-case and the gangs are gonna pick on you. It doesn't mean the government is paying them, it means you need to quit doing things to attract their attention. Quit playing neighborhood spy for instance.

The government has secret agents renting a house just down the street from him -- Dude, every neighborhood has some excessively private people with odd schedules. Get over it, they aren't out to get you. If they were, you'd already have been "gotten" by now.

The guy thinks that President Bush is Adolf Hitler -- That's really original, blame the President on all your woes, typical liberal bullshit blaming the President on your own failings in life. If I remember right, Hitler tried to exterminate an entire race of people based on their religion. I haven't yet seen any reports of Bush trying to do that, if anything he's trying to stop the nutjob terrorists who try and kill others based on their religious beliefs.

The government's constant harassing of him has caused his wife to leave him -- Hey, umm, James, hate to break it to you, but it was more likely your paranoid delusions that made her feel unsafe around you, thereby causing her to flee for her life in fear of you.

I could go on and on, but I've had enough fun at this guy's expense. The sad thing is, there are actually people out there who believe the kind of nonsense he's spouting off about.

First Amendment Rights

2006-09-15T11:58:00.000-05:00

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

First off let me tell you that if this makes you mad, oh well. Because I WILL NOT apologize for what I believe. Nor will I hold it against someone for having a different belief than myself. I REFUSE TO BE POLITICALLY CORRECT!!! Political correctness is for wimps.
Now with that being said I want to go over the third part of the first amendment. "or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press". If you have a blog, like this one, where you put down your thoughts, (whether right or wrong, and I can be wrong a lot) you are using FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND POSSIBLY PRESS. I get tired of hearing someone on the radio say, " I have to be careful here as not to offend somebody". Why can't more people be like some of these people:
Andrew Wilkow, Mike McCarville, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, G. Gordon Liddy, and Cam Edwards. You may or may not like or agree with one or more of these people, but as long as I have listened to most of them, I believe I can say that I have disagreed at one time or another with at least most of them at least once. But, they have always TOLD IT THE WAY THEY SEE IT! They are not afraid to say what they feel. They also research quite a bit more than I do on any given subject. That does not say that they are always right. Just that they say what they believe. The main reason I believe more about what they say than anyone else is because they don't sugar coat anything. They tell it like it is. I may disagree through ignorance, but can people just agree to disagree? No one is above anyone else. I get tired of the bitching and complaining about "somebody offended me." Everyone is offended by something. If you are offended you can always, 1. Quit listening 2. Quit reading 3. Change the channel. JUST QUIT YOUR BITCHING! IT OFFENDS ME. I don't think that your suing for political correctness will change anything. You need to either shut your trap, or change. (Now I could be very wrong about this next statement) I think that a lot of the rage in the world today whether be it road rage or any other type of rage stems from people having to be politically correct all the time. We need to make a stand to get rid of all of the political correctness. It seems to me that the same people that are screaming for political correctness are the same ones that trying to take away all our rights. Like the right to bear arms. They are the ones that took prayer out of schools. ( Or so they tried, as long as there tests in school there will be prayer whether they like it or not.) All these people that are trying to take away our rights need to be taken out of office. We have been fighting overseas for our freedom. Let's bring the fight home for our freedoms. Let's be free the way our forefathers intended us to be. Let's " petition the government for a redress of OUR grievances", let's fight to maintain our freedoms before they are all taken away.

Drivers Who Carry Guns & Roadrage

2006-09-14T21:33:00.000-05:00

Taken from Popular Science article "Science Confirms the Obvious!":

"2. Gun-Toting Drivers are More Prone to Road Rage The Study: Is an armed society a polite society? Guns and road rage, Accident Analysis and Prevention, Jan. 2006

The Findings: After cold-calling 2,459 American adults with an anonymous questionnaire, researchers from the Harvard Injury Control Research Center discovered that directing indecent gestures at other motorists was significantly more common among suburbanites, binge drinkers, Northeasterners, those who think most people can't be trusted and, yes, those who admitted that they keep guns in their vehicles.

Why Bother? The paper says it best:If someone is giving you the finger, it may be useful to have some sense of whether or not they have a gun. Co-author Mary Vriniotis adds that states have recently loosened laws allowing motorists to drive while packing heat. The implication is that if lethal weapons are more readily accessible, hostile driving incidents could turn ugly more often. Knowing which populations are prone to road rage could help policymakers devise awareness campaigns or other strategies to help curb its frequency."

Let me put it like this: Horseshit, pure and simple.

1. If it were true, where are all the highway motorist-to-motorist shootings taking place that I never hear about in the news?

2. 2,459 persons out of a population of how many millions (estimate 296 Million +/- a few) of people in the U.S. is not a fair representation on any level of what might statistically be an accurate representation.

3. I've found when carrying a firearm in a vehicle I tend to become more polite and less aggressiveressive towards others, for the simple reason that I know the importance and responsibility of carrying a firearm in public.

4. So far every gun owner I've ever talked to about this subject has acknowledged having the same state of mind as I stated in #3.

5. Open carry of a firearm can help prevent road rage and aggressiveness of driving of other motorists toward you. When Johnny Speedracer sees a rifle or shotgun in the back glass gunrack of a pickup-truck, chances are he doesn't want to anger occupants of said vehicle. I've never been cut off, flipped off, or whatever when a gun is visible, only when not. Hmmm. Guns can help prevent roadrage and aggressive-driver caused accidents. See, guns actually make the roads a safer place.

6. It simply looks to me like they used this article as a means of doing another plug for the anti-gunners.

Neanderthal News

2006-09-13T16:22:00.000-05:00

Read it on FOX News.

"Neanderthals might have held out in isolated refuges for thousands of years longer than previously thought, a team of scientists reported in the Web site of the journal Nature on Wednesday."

I've got news for them,they're still alive and well, holding out in isolated refuges just fine, and I happen to know this because I know some living breathing persons in the mountains of North Carolina who fit the description perfectly. See, you don't have spend thousands and thousands of dollars on scientific pooh-pah, all you have to do is just get out of your happy zone and go door to door in the backwoods of the Apalachians.

Crab Grass

2006-09-12T13:06:00.000-05:00

Crab Grass, originally uploaded by Western Wisdom.

This was one mean blue crab. I guess you could say it was in a crabby mood. I suppose you'd be pretty irate too, if you were about to be dunked in a pot of boiling water.

September 11, 2006

2006-09-11T23:59:00.000-05:00

America Will Never Forget the Tragic Events of September 11, 2001

Lethargic Saturday

2006-09-09T10:18:00.000-05:00

I decided to just do some light blogging today, and post some pictures of my trip to Keaton Beach, FL I took back in the spring of this year. It's a quiet little beachfront hamlet on the Gulf of Mexico. It doesn't get very crowded, even during tourist season there never seems to be much of a crowd.
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This is Keaton Beach looking to the south-south west. Notice the plethora of sunbathing bikini clad women lined up shoulder to shoulder along the beach.

Here you see the pier where the fishing is best for the landlubbers without boats. There's lots of Grunts, Gar, and Ladyfish in these waters, but if you're persistent you can stock up Mullet, Grouper, and Mackerel. These waters are also filled with tons of Blue Crabs.

Now that we're at the end of the pier, standing under the covered gazebo, we sit back and breath a sigh of relief that we made it all the way to the end without being tossed over the side by those hordes of angry fisherman lining the railings.

Here's the beachfront looking north-west. It's hard to image how all those people playing in the surf can bear these overcrowded conditions. Be careful, there's sharks in the water!

This is really a high-falutin' place, it even has truck parking.

Time to go, I hope we can make it out before dark, it's going to be close what with the bumper to bumper traffic jam-packing the only access road in and out of town. All those skyscraper beachfront resorts really draw in the crowds.

Cleaning and Storing Your Firearms

2006-09-07T08:42:00.000-05:00

When cleaning the barrel, always clean from the breech end of the gun, preferably using a rod guide to keep solvents and grime out of the action. The last 6 inches of the rifling is the most important for accuracy, with the crown being the most critical. If you must clean from the muzzle end, such as with semi-automatics, use a muzzle-guide to keep the rod from contacting the rifling.

It’s also best to use a stainless-steel or coated one-piece cleaning rod such as those made by Dewey. Stainless is best, brass is mediocre, and aluminum is a poor choice. The softer the metal of the rod, the more chance there is of the metal holding bits of crud and acting like an abrasive and scratching the lands of the rifling, eventually destroying the accuracy of the barrel. One piece rods are best for strength, and also because multi-piece rods sometimes don’t line up properly making it that much more prone to contacting and damaging the barrel.

Start out by wetting a patch with solvent and swabbing the bore thoroughly to get it saturated, or use a foaming bore cleaner. Let it soak a few minutes and then take a bronze or stiff nylon bore brush and scrub the barrel about a dozen times in each direction. Your barrel will probably be very cruddy at this time. Instead of trying to patch out all the crud, take a paper-towel and ball it up so it fits into the bore very snuggly, and push it through with the cleaning rod, this should have pushed out most all of the big crud, leaving only hard-fouling to be removed. A BoreSnake can be used for this step instead, but don’t stop and call it quits after using the snake, be sure to continue with the rest of the cleaning steps to remove stubborn copper fouling.

At this point you’ll want to wet another patch with solvent and soak the barrel again for several minutes. Follow up with a dry patch. Repeat the solvent/dry-patch routine until the dry patches come out clean without any hint of dissolved fouling on them. You can tell if you are still getting copper fouling out of the barrel because you will see a blue or green tinge on the patch. I’ve found that one of the best all-around bore cleaners is Birchwood-Casey Bore Scrubber®. It does a fine job on powder, copper, and plastic shot-wad fouling. Lead fouling always takes some elbow-grease no matter what product you use, but Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner does a good job on everything, plus makes short work of carbon buildup. I generally try to save the Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner for the tough jobs, as it’s really some potent stuff and not really necessary for every day cleaning tasks, as it strips everything from the surface of the metal (and I have a hunch it softens a gun’s bluing too) and must be followed up with a thorough oiling afterwards to prevent rust; if you inadvertently miss a spot, leaving it dry and unprotected, you will know a short time later because you'll see a rust patch on that spot. That's the nice thing about most other bore solvents, is that they leave a slightly protective coating that will keep the metal from rusting for a short time, should you not thoroughly apply a rust-preventative.

Once the cleaning is done you can wipe down the bore and rest of the gun with a good coat of rust-preventative. I’m rather fond of either Corrosion-X or BoeShield T-9 for rust-prevention inside and out. Be sure to lubricate the actual moving parts of the firearm with the proper manufacturer recommended lubricants. (Normally oil is used on the slides, rails, etc. {although Corrosion-X claims superior lubricating qualities} and white lithium-grease on pressure points such as bolt lugs.)

When storing the guns, be sure to wipe them down with a fresh coat of rust-preventative at least once a month. If not being shot for extended periods of over 6 months, I generally give the whole gun a thorough cleaning and re-lube the gun every 6th month. Long-term/low-maintenance storage solutions for guns being stored over a year or more could include coating the gun with a good preservative such as Cosmoline, but can be difficult to remove later on. I have a feeling BoeShield would be excellent for long-term storage, but I have not yet tested it for such.

Be careful of the solvents you use, some will ruin the finish on wood stocks; others will destroy a synthetic stock in no time at all. A synthetic stock generally needs nothing rubbed on it, while it’s best to rub a wooden stock with a silicon cloth or use a carnauba wax. Avoid oiling the stock with gun-oil like the old-timer’s did, once the wood becomes saturated with so much oil, the wood will become soft and begin to break-down.

It’s best to store rifles or shotguns that have rubber or similar recoil pads in a horizontal position. The recoil pad can become deformed from the weight of the gun resting on it for extended periods of time. Of course this is not practical with current trend of gun-safes going around, so if you have to go with a vertical-storage safe instead of gun rack or cabinet with horizontal storage, try and opt for a safe that has provisions for barrel-down storage. Steer away from the cheap gun lockers with the foam padding, the foam attracts and holds moisture and will rust your guns quickly. Any time guns are stored in an enclosed area with little air-flow, humidity can become a concern. Lighted gun cabinets work well if the lights are left on inside it around the clock, as the heat from the bulbs will help to dry the air. Unlit gun-cabinets can easily have these added, or if you prefer, you can add a dehumidifier such as the electric GoldenRod dehumidifiers or use the re-usable Hydrosorbent Silica Gel packs that can be dried out in the oven numerous times.

Never store your guns with the barrel plugged, any moisture inside will not have a chance to escape or dry out and will eventually cause rust and pitting, and harmful fumes from solvents not thoroughly flushed out can also cause unwanted damage to the metal. This seems like common sense, but obviously it isn’t as I’ve seen more than a handful of people do exactly that. Also, never store your guns in a foam-padded gun case, again, the same as the cheap gun-lockers, the foam will attract and hold moisture causing your guns to rust. Yes, stainless steel guns will rust too, just at a slower rate (it’s stainless in the essence that it will stain-less, not be stain-proof).

Never store your guns with pressure on the firing pin springs as this will serve to weaken them over time. For guns with enclosed hammers, or hammerless guns, if allowed by the manufacturer dry fire the gun to release the spring tension, otherwise use snap-caps. I recommend the metal ones as they last longer than the plastic ones. My last set of plastic ones were Tipton 12-guage shotshell snap-caps and they both cracked after about the 6th use.

I hope that you've found some useful tips and suggestions that will serve to help keep your guns in excellent condition for as long as you own them.

How To Break-In a New Rifle Barrel

2006-09-06T12:41:00.000-05:00

I received an email recently asking me why people break-in their barrels and how they do it. They also asked about the best way to clean and store their firearms. So instead of just replying to the one who asked, I also decided to post the answers here on W-W. Today I will cover new-barrel break-in, and tomorrow I will cover proper cleaning and storage of firearms.

The purpose of breaking-in the new barrel is to try and squeeze every bit of accuracy potential out of the barrel. The break-in shots will help smooth the rough surfaces of the barrel, while the frequent cleaning will remove the fouling that fills in or builds up on the rough surfaces needing smoothed out, so that each shot will smooth out the barrel, instead of just building up excess fouling with each consecutive shot. A properly broken-in barrel will not only be more accurate, but will foul less and clean easier than a barrel that has not been properly broken-in
.
If it is a particularly rough barrel, one might consider first using one of the various barrel lapping kits from Brownells or Midway USA.

Give the gun a thorough cleaning before shooting it for the first time. This will remove any dirt, preservative, fouling from factory test shots, lapping compound not removed from the factory, etc.

Before shooting, run a dry patch down the bore to remove any oil or rust preventative.

It will take about 20 shots to break the bore in. Use only copper jacketed bullets for this procedure. Do not use any bullets with special coatings such as Moly, Lubalox, or other proprietary coatings, no matter if it's black, blue, green, purple, orange, polka-dot, houndstooth, or black-watch tartan.

For the first 10 shots, clean the bore with a good copper solvent between each shot. Allow the solvent to work for several minutes before swabbing the bore dry. Make sure you clean the barrel well enough each time that no traces of copper fouling are present.

For the next 10 shots, repeat the same procedure, except clean the bore every other shot.

Once all twenty shots have been fired, give the gun a thorough cleaning and now the rifle's barrel should be broken in and ready for duty.

Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter is Dead

2006-09-04T08:25:00.000-05:00

Read the whole story on FOX News.

I guess when you choose to do the things he does, it's bound to happen sooner than later. I suppose I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but his motives were questionable. Perhaps this is justice for endangering the life of his one month old baby by carrying him into a pen of live crocodiles... you know, the biblical saying from Galatians 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Maybe I've taken that out of context, maybe not.

I didn't much agree with his anti-hunting doctrine either. I guess it just goes to show, even though he wanted to be the animal kingdom's best friend, the animal kingdom didn't feel quite the same way about him.

More Criminal Control = Harsher Punishments

2006-09-03T13:15:00.000-05:00

I don't know about y'all, but I get mighty sick every time I think about how easy criminals in this country have it. All these liberals seem hell-bent on making sure criminals in this country get lots of sympathy and comfy accommodations during their brief periods of incarceration. That is, if they even get sent to prison in the first place.

I've visited several of the prisons in this country, and I have to tell you, I was surprised at how good they had it. It's no wonder they didn't mind being prisoners, heck, if I fell on hard times, I wouldn't mind being a prisoner either in some of these prison-resorts.

Let's look at some of the things these criminals are being punished with:

A roof over their head.
A warm bed to sleep in every night.
3 full meals each day.
Hot showers daily.
Recreation facilities that in many cases are better equipped than public recreation centers.
Air-conditioned buildings in the summer.
Heated-buildings in the winter.
Cable T.V. is provided in many instances.
Medical and dental care.
High school diploma and college education programs.

How much do they have to pay for all this? Nothing, zero, zip, nada. They get it all for free at our, the taxpayers' expense. They don't have to go to work every day, they don't have to worry about paying the bills. They get it all handed to them just for being bad. Heck, in some ways they have it better off than about half of the working class stiffs do.

Many of these criminals are in prison their third, fourth, etc., times because they can't handle the responsibilities of the real world. They don't WANT to have to deal with the responsibilities of living in society. I've talked to numerous inmates that felt that way, but one will always be the most memorable.

My (now ex) step-daughter's biological father was released from prison several years ago. When he got out I did everything I could to lend him a hand to get him on his feet, he just didn't want to deal with it. All he'd talk about was trying to figure what kind of crime he could commit so he could go back to prison. I asked him, I said "Look, you just got released, why are you so intent on going back? Why don't you enjoy your new-found freedom for a while? Go straight, try and live a decent life." He wouldn't hear of it. He basically told me everything I've already told you. He couldn't handle the pressures of being free. He felt alone, and vulnerable in a big, open world. He didn't have guards protecting him every night, the excuses just went on and on. He couldn't handle the responsibility of working a real job, paying bills, or anything else. He wanted everything handed to him. In prison he didn't have a care in the world, never worried where his next meal would come from.

So a few days later he robbed a liquor store, took all the money, beat the owner nearly to death with a club, and walked down the road with a bottle of whiskey in his hand getting drunk until the cops picked him up a couple hours later. All so he could once again have all his needs taken care of for him.

As long as liberal lawmakers continue to oppress the free and look after the humanitarian treatment of criminals in this country, the problem is never going to be solved. We need harsher punishments for first time offenders. We need to take away all the comforts that these prisons offer. It would do wonders for reducing crime in this country if criminals had only harsh punishments to look forward to, instead of living on easy-street. Yeah, it's not so bad when your only worry is about getting shanked by a fellow inmate with a grudge. That's just one worry out of hundreds of others faced by living in society.

Get rid of the recreation facilities. Get rid of TV entertainment. Get rid of the educational opportunities (that one really gets me, all we're doing is producing smarter criminals). Make them get out in the hot sun and freezing cold 7 days a week for 14 or 16 hours a day doing hard manual labor. Take away their A/C and heat. Take away their padded bunks and give them a concrete floor to sleep on. Take away their nice meals and feed them dry dog food once a day. Get rid of the free medical and dental care; let them suffer, if they suffer in agony or die, too bad, they gave up their rights when they became criminals. Let them bathe once a month, and rot in their own filth the rest of the time.

If they committed a crime like murder, child molestation, etc. give them the death sentence. Don't give them a second chance to re-enter society so they can do it again. The same goes for multiple offenders of lesser crimes, if they've proven they can't reform, don't waste our tax dollars caring for them for the rest of their lives, give them the death sentence.

Harsh punishments like these will come a long way to making would-be criminals stop and think before they act. Yes, there will still be crime. There will still be crimes committed in the heat of the moment, and out of desperation, but I can guarantee there will be far less of them, and even less second offenders.

Quit treating those who defend themselves against criminals as if they themselves were criminals too. A man who has to take matters into his own hands to defend his family, life, home, and property should be praised and rewarded for the hero that he is, instead of being subjected to lengthily and unnecessary trials and investigations which rip apart his home and family life, as well as being scrutinized and condemned by the liberal media.

Compassion and humanitarian efforts are not for our country's criminals; save them for the needy and hungry citizens of this country who really need the help.

Defending Against A Knife Attack

2006-09-02T12:35:00.000-05:00

Hat-tip to Cam Edwards from NRA News http://nranews.com for bringing up an interesting topic on his radio show last night. For those who missed the show, during the last half-hour of the show he basically replayed a "Man In The Street" segment where some lady said no-one needed guns to defend themselves against a knife-wielding wacko. (Well, that was one of many amazingly stupid things she said, but the one focused on for the most part.)She also states that brass knuckles are all one needs to carry to protect themselves from an attacker. Listeners then called in or IM'ed in with their responses to her insanely stupid reasoning.

In several, if not most, states it's illegal to carry brass knuckles. It doesn't matter if you're the good guy or the bad guy, if you have brass knuckles on you in public then you are committing a crime whether you use them or not.

I personally don't want to have to get close enough to a knife-wielding wacko to get cut and stabbed trying to punch the guy out with a set of brass knuckles. Getting hacked up with a knife is one the last things I'd want to happen to me, and a gun will most assuredly allow me to neutralize the threat without risking getting seriously wounded or even killed.

So that leaves brass knuckles out of the reasonable defense against a knife category.

How about another knife? Let's cut to the chase here (pun intended). Any weapon or instrument that doesn't shoot a potentially lethal high velocity projectile, whether it be a knife, baton, club, brass knuckles, lead-glove, etc., will require you to get into the personal zone of the assailant. This puts you, the defender in serious jeopardy.

Anyone who's ever seen the results of a knife fight or knife attack knows just how serious and gruesome knife wounds are. They aren't like the little cuts you get when accidentally nick yourself in the kitchen slicing an onion. Knife wounds from an attacker are generally very deep, long slices or stabs that will open you up like nothing you can imagine, and there's a great chance it'll sever a major artery or otherwise slice open internal organs. You will bleed, and you will bleed out fast, and chances are you will die before help ever gets to you, that is if you even get the chance to call for it. And that's if you're the winner, folks.

No thanks, I choose life and walking away a healthy, living person. Thanks to right to carry laws in most states, we get the chance to defend ourselves with guns that can put the attacker down quickly and from a safe distance.

But just carrying a gun is not enough if you drop your guard. You've got to constantly be aware of your surroundings. You've got to quickly formulate defensive plans on the spur of the moment and adjust your plan as the environment changes around you. You need to be able to recognize potentially hostile persons and dangerous areas. Never walk into an area unless you have a quick escape route, avoid blind corners, dark alleys, and the like. Don't play the tough guy and try and walk right through the middle of a gang, swallow your pride and cross the street, or turn around and find another less hostile route. The list of do's and don't go on and on and there is a never ending list of variables being thrown into the mix.

Get some self-defense training, obtain your concealed carry license, and teach yourself to stay on alert whenever you venture out. Don't be a victim if you don't have to be, and before the crap hits the fan, remember that it's better to have and not need than to need and not have. Your life, health, and safety is your own responsibility, and no one else's, not even the government's.

The Man Behind "The McCarville Report Online"

2006-09-01T11:59:00.000-05:00

Mike McCarville is doing a series on his blog The McCarville Report Online entitled: “10 Political Figures I'd Want Watching My Back...And Why”.

If you've never visited Mike's blog before, now would be a good time to start. He's throwing away the political labels for this series and is giving you his politically unbiased opinion on the characters of the persons he'll be covering in his ten part series.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mike McCarville, I’ll try and give you a sense of who the man is.

Mike McCarville began writing at Del City High School as the Teen Correspondent for The Daily Oklahoman-Oklahoma City Times. After high school Mike spent part of his time in the U.S. Army’s PIO (Public Information Office) at Ft. Belvoir, Va., and also did a weekly radio show.

After being discharged from the Army, Mike enrolled at the University of Oklahoma and went to work in the Norman Bureau of The Daily Oklahoman-Oklahoma City Times, moving on to join the OKC staff in 1962.

From that time on, Mr. McCarville states that he bounced around from the Tulsa Tribune, Norman Transcript, and Oklahoma Courier, and then rejoined the Tribune in 1967 as State Capitol Correspondent.

In 1968 Mike became press secretary to Governor Dewey F. Bartlett. 1971 brought on a change to his becoming Assistant News Director at KWTV. In 1972 Mike co-managed Bartlett’s U.S. Senate campaign, ultimately becoming the Campaign Consultant.

1980 was a landmark year for Mike McCarville when he founded The McCarville Report, Byline Magazine for beginning writers, and Ford Owners Newsletter.

Mike went on to work part-time for KTOK News as Investigative Reporter. He became a full-time employee in 1993, began the talk show in 1996 and left the station December 31, 2005, having been on 10 years and 4 years as Program Director.

During all those years Mike explains that he did freelance writing for numerous publications which were national, regional, and local.

I asked Mike to recollect some of the most memorable moments of his career, and there were certainly some exciting, scary, and historic moments that he recounted: “The May 1999 F5 tornado...I was on the air. April 19, 1995, Murrah Building bombing...I was there within 10 minutes, spent almost three weeks on site nonstop. September 11, 2001...went on the air immediately. Lots of other moments as well: My interview with Jesse Jackson when, as my final question, I asked what he did for a living. "Well," he said, "I talk to people like you...have my CNN show...." He didn't know what to say. A moment I'll forever savor!”

When asked what prompted him to do his 10 part series entitled: "10 Political Figures I'd Want Watching My Back...And Why", Mike responded, “I was prompted to do this series because there are so many fine people in both parties out there that few know about; just my way of telling their stories based on my personal experiences with them.”

I asked Mr. McCarville, “With all the biased reporting floating around, how did you manage to keep your journalism so politically uncolored?” His reply was as refreshing as a spring breeze after the rain: “As for keeping bias out of my pieces...that's just the way I'm built, I guess. I strive to be fair and I've been around long enough, with enough experiences, that I recognize there are numerous sides to every story. I prefer to look at the positive sides.”

Mike has certainly led the way in well-balanced and unbiased journalism. His career has landed him a reputation for being one the few voices of truth in the chaotic and demanding world of journalistic media. No wonder the name Mike McCarville quickly became a well-revered household name throughout great state of Oklahoma.

Many thanks to Mr. McCarville for taking time out of his schedule to allow me to conduct this interview.

Christmas and the ACLU: W-W Style

2006-09-01T10:35:00.000-05:00

Everyone in the blogosphere seems to be blogging about this message they're getting in the email. I got one too, so after you read it, or if you've already read it before, go to the bottom and read my take on the idea.

This is coming early (really early) so that you can get ready to include an important address to your list.

Read on........ What a GREAT idea!Fun with the ACLU......Wanna have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD this year.

As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN, card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world.

Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it.

Here's the Address, just don't be rude or crude. (It's Not the Christian Way, you know!)

ACLU
125 Broad Street
18th Floor
New York, NY 10004

Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions. So spend 39 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a "Holiday Tree". . . . It's a Christmas Tree even in the fields!!

And pass this on to your email lists. We really want to communicate with the ACLU! They really DESERVE us!!

----

Okay, at first this might seem like a good idea. Everyone's saying, "Let's all send Christmas cards to the anti-Christian folks at the ACLU, that'll really show 'em!"

It'll show them all right. It'll show them what a bunch of morons people can be spending their hard earned money on none other but people they don't like. So the ACLU gets a bunch of mailbags full of Christmas cards. What are we going to really do to them? Inconvenience them for a few days? Whooptie-Doo.

Use a little logic and don't waste your money on a Christmas card to send to them, nor the cost of a stamp. With the price of the average Christmas card costing between $2 and $5, take the money spent on that one card, write out a check and send it to your favorite Christian-Rights organization that fights to keep your Christianity from being banned in this country. If everyone would do this instead, think of all the extra funding that would be used where it's REALLY needed.

I guarantee the money you give a Christian rights group is much more needed, and would be a bigger help in the long run, than that of wasting your money to cause a temporary inconvenience to ACLU by sending them a card.

Should States seize guns amidst a crisis?

2006-08-31T16:03:00.000-05:00

Think about that for a moment. If in a state of emergency { i.e. New Orleans } Should the government seize your guns? I don't think so. If the governor of New Orleans had not done so, the law abiding citizens could have protected themselves from all the looting, rapes, killings, and the robberies. That's why I am glad that earlier this year, Oklahoma had passed House Bill 2696. It protects the Second Amendment for those of us that are gun owners. We all have read or heard on the news, on how violence and chaos erupted right after Hurricane Katrina. The authorities there started collecting guns and weapons because " it was too difficult telling law abiding citizens from the criminals." I think I can tell you the difference. The looters that were looting items that would not help you survive. I truly feel sorry for those people. Having to steal food in order to survive is one thing. I would have let those people go. But, those that were taking televisions, beer, and the such, would have been arrested. The law abiding citizens were protecting what they had left. The criminals were trying to take it all away. There were not enough police officers to handle all the 911 calls that were coming through. Now I ask you this: If there were not enough police, then why take the guns from the law abiding citizens. In that situation, would you not rather to have people to be able to protect themselves? I can hear you now. "There are other ways to protect yourself". O.K. How about this analogy: Taking a knife to a gun fight. How would you protect yourself if you were held at gunpoint with anything other than a gun? I hear you too: with martial arts! As someone who studied martial arts for several years, that MIGHT work if: 1. You could catch your opponent off guard. 2. You were close enough to take action. Even at one foot out of reach he still has the advantage. I would rather protect myself with a firearm and make the odds a little better. I believe in the old saying, "When you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns." If that were to happen, (and I pray that it doesn't) I may have to become an outlaw. I love the saying, " You can have my guns when you pry them from my cold dead fingers." I will always be a gun owner to be able to provide for and protect my family. I do not want the criminal element to have the upper hand. "Give a man a steak, feed him for a meal. Teach a man to hunt, feed him for a lifetime". Since Katrina, the NAACP claims that House Bill 2696 opens the way for discrimination. That may be right, but it only discriminates against the CRIMINAL. Not the law abiding citizens of this great country. According to the Second Amendment Foundation, at least 10 states have adopted this law. (now we only have 40 more to go!) And as far as the statements; "We have a very difficult time telling the law abiding citizens and the criminals", I have a solution: I urge, no I implore you to get your CCW license A.S.A.P., even if you don't ever plan to carry. The reason is that CRIMINALS CAN NOT GET ONE!!!! I believe that in a state of emergency, the police need all the help they can get from law abiding citizens. They can't be everywhere at once.

I leave you with a final thought: If criminals won't give up their guns, Why should we?

S&W Emergency Survival Kit Guns

2006-08-31T15:08:00.000-05:00

The concept behind the Smith & Wesson Emergency Survival Kit Guns is indeed an interesting approach to providing a basic, foul weather friendly, ready to go wilderness survival kit. It includes the basic items for making your way in the wild, including a saw, whistle, signal mirror, fire-starter, compass, two space blankets, a knife, survival book, and a weather-proof case for it all. All that for one low price, and they throw in a short-barreled big-bore revolver with neon grips.

I'm not fond of the neon grips and wish they'd include a black rubber combat grip too, though one can be purchased separately for a reasonable price. The revolvers are offered in your choice of .500 S&W and .460 XVR which is sure to please the most power-hungry handgun survivalists who like front-sight dents in their forehead.

Given the two choices, I would go with the .460 XVR as one has the option to load it with the blistering fast .460 XVR, the more than stout .454 Casull, or the .45 Colt cartridge. Still, I think the average handgunner will shy away from these powerhouse guns and opt for something a little more controllable nix the neon grips. I think an offering in .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, or even the plenty-powerful .44 Magnum would have been a good idea.

Kudos to S&W for coming up with a unique package like this, even if they aren't offered for more user friendly cartridges that use ammo not requiring you to take out a second mortgage on your home to feed the beast.

Firearms Safety W-W Style

2006-08-30T13:37:00.000-05:00

It’s time for a firearm safety refresher course, so sit back and listen while Uncle Joe gives you the rundown W-W style.

The 10 Commandments of Firearm Safety:

1. Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
2. Firearms should be unloaded when not actually in use.
3. Don’t rely on your gun’s safety.
4. Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.
5. Use correct ammunition.
6. If your gun fails to fire when the trigger is pulled, handle with care.
7. Always wear eye and ear protection when shooting.
8. Be sure the barrel is clear of obstructions before shooting.
9. Don’t alter or modify your gun, and have guns serviced regularly.
10. Learn the mechanical and handling characteristics of the firearm you are using.

Those are the ten basic (unadulterated) things you need to know before ever picking up a firearm. Now let’s break them down a tad and throw in some reasoning for each commandment.

The 10 Commandments of Firearm Safety Redux:

1. Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.

In other words, don’t point your gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot. Carry your gun with the muzzle pointed to ground in front of you. If you are in a group and someone is in front of you, sling the rifle with the muzzle skyward, but remember, what goes up must come down. In a house, bullets can penetrate interior walls and many exterior walls like a hot knife through butter, only you can’t see who’s on the other side. Logic dictates that there might not always be a safe direction, in this case choose a direction that has the littlest damage potential, but try and avoid those types of situations first.

2. Firearms should be unloaded when not actually in use.

That’s pretty self explanatory. The only exception is a gun kept loaded at all times for personal or home defense, but technically these are guns that are in-use 24/7.

3. Don’t rely on your gun’s safety.

Mechanical safeties can fail. A safety is not a fail-safe mechanism; it is a precautionary item that should not be relied upon solely as a means of preventing a firearm from going off. These safeties rely upon the competence of the person handling the firearm.

4. Be sure of your target and what’s beyond it.

Bullets penetrate, often times much further than anticipated. There is also the possibility you might miss your target, so never rely on the target itself as a backstop. Don’t shoot if people are anywhere in the vicinity of your target. Ever hear of a ricochet?

5. Use correct ammunition.

Again, this should be self-explanatory, but there are those who aren’t so bright. Just because it looks like it fits, doesn’t mean its safe. The wrong cartridge’s dimensions could be off enough from that of the chamber so that if it were to be fired, dangerous pressures could result. If it’s not a cartridge made specifically for your chambering, don’t even think about trying it!

A cartridge too small for the gun’s chambering could slide down far enough into the chamber that when you try to eject it, the extractor doesn’t grab it. A following round being shoved into the chamber could cause the tip of the bullet to ignite the primer of the first cartridge, resulting in a potentially lethal catastrophe.

In the case of shotguns, the round might just stop up the barrel and when the correct cartridge is loaded and fired, the results can be potentially lethal for both the shooter and any bystanders. (See #8)

6. If your gun fails to fire when the trigger is pulled, handle with care.

Hang fires can and do occur with modern ammunition, though it’s not nearly as common as it was with muzzleloaders. There could be a couple different reasons why it didn’t fire, and doesn’t mean it won’t fire at all. The primer could be slow to ignite. The powder could also be the culprit and be slow in igniting.

If your gun doesn’t fire, keep it pointed at the target and wait at least 15 seconds, and honestly, in all my years of shooting I’ve had a two factory rounds that didn’t go off until after 20 seconds passed (though these are extremely rare, more than one in a million if I had to hazard a guess), so best to wait at least 30 seconds, then if your gun has second fire capabilities, try firing again, or else extract the cartridge and inspect the primer to make sure it has a firing-pin dent.

Things to look for:
Make sure the face of the primer is flush with the head of the cartridge. If it’s seated too deeply, that could cause the firing pin to not hit it with enough force to fire it. The firing pin indentation should be round and deep, if it’s a very light indentation that could be a sign of a problem with the gun itself, it could be a broken firing pin or weakened spring. It could also mean a defective primer with too thick a housing.

If none of the above is the problem and one wants to investigate further, use a kinetic bullet puller and remove the bullet and powder. Is the powder dry? Try carefully decapping the cartridge case next. Go easy, decapping a live primer can break your decapping pin and scare the bejeebers out of you and anyone in close proximity. If it won’t decap, that’s probably the problem right there, the cartridge case had no flash hole in the primer pocket. If it does decap, then by golly it was probably just a dead primer.

7. Always wear eye and ear protection when shooting.

Again, fairly self explanatory, but there are some people who don’t quite understand what proper protection is. Regular eyeglasses are not protection enough, unless they have shatter-proof lenses.
Those Wally-World sunglass are the same. Unless they are shatter resistant lenses, specifically made for shooting or otherwise industrial safety glasses, don’t wear them. Glass lenses can shatter when debris hit them. Make sure the glasses fit your face snuggly and properly.

Use the proper hearing protection for your environment. At a range, wear hearing protection that attenuates loud noises and lets regular sound through so that you can hear range commands. Hearing protection is just important when hunting, though somewhat inconvenient. For those circumstances, try some of the hearing protectors that amplify (in stereo) surrounding sounds and attenuate the loud ones. These can actually help you hear game that you otherwise wouldn’t hear. Some guns require a little extra protection, those with muzzle-brakes can direct the sound-waves back towards the shooter, and in those cases sometimes earplugs with muff-type protectors over those are in order. Ultimately it’s your hearing, and it’s up to you how badly you want to keep it or not.

8. Be sure the barrel is clear of obstructions before shooting.

This one kind of goes along with #5 for obvious reasons, but there is more to it that that. Make sure that mud, snow, and other debris hasn’t inadvertently plugged the barrel. A piece of gaffer’s tape over the end of the barrel will help prevent this, and won’t affect the bullet or accuracy any.

If you shoot the gun and it sounds “off”, it could have been a squib round. Don’t load and fire another round until you check the barrel to make sure the bullet isn’t lodged in the rifling. If it is, don’t try shooting it out, this will be bad news for you and the gun. If you can’t remove the bullet with a dowel or sturdy rod, it’s time to let the gunsmith take care of it for you. Now would be good time to have him check the whole gun over as a safety precaution. Now would also be a good time to fork over a few bucks to have him do a good trigger/action job if you haven’t had one yet.

A special note aimed at one person: To the guy who called in to Cam & Company a few weeks ago and asked what to do if you got your pecker stuck in the barrel of a shotgun, my advice to you is load the shotgun with a pumpkin ball and pull the trigger. Everyone else is advised to not do this, as it will only work for this particular person with the tiny genitalia.

9. Don’t alter or modify your gun, and have guns serviced regularly.

They’re talking about major modifications. Changing the grips, stock, or sights on a gun can probably be achieved by any gun owner unless they are completely incompetent, but this level of incompetence would have probably kept them from finding a gun shop in the first place. As for major modifications, action jobs, etc., those are best left to professional gunsmiths with outstanding reputations.

10. Learn the mechanical and handling characteristics of the firearm you are using.

Every gun is different, and has a personality of its own. Read the manual, if you didn’t get a manual contact the manufacturer and they will gladly send you one for free. Don’t go to the range and shoot the gun a few times and then never touch it until you need it. You need to familiarize yourself with the gun, go to range and practice, practice, practice. Use the firearm often enough so that all of its features and handling nuances become second nature to you.

Now for some W-W extras:

11. Don’t mix firearms and alcohol.

These activities should be enjoyed separately and should never be mixed under any circumstances.

12. Don’t ban your children altogether from your guns.

Children are curious by nature and banning them from your guns will only intensify their curiosity. Instead, teach them gun safety, teach them the importance of all the rules and the responsibility that goes with owning and using firearms. Then let them handle the guns under your supervision and teach them to shoot. Take them with you often to the range, and hunting, and let them shoot with you.

Buy a few guns specifically for their use that you will keep safe with your own, this will make a world of difference in their lives, they will then be their own responsible gun owner, and they now have to practice what they’ve been taught. It’s one thing to shoot daddy’s guns; it’s another to shoot their own guns that are specifically for them. Teach them to clean and maintain their own guns too.

13. Clean and lubricate your guns as soon as possible after each shooting session.

A clean, well maintained gun is a more accurate and reliable gun. Today’s non-corrosive rounds still leave a residue that can attract moisture which will cause rust and pitting in your bore.

14. Buy more guns.

I don’t care how many guns you own, it’s never enough. A happy gun is a gun with a responsible owner with lots of family members. Think of all the poor orphaned and ownerless guns at the gun shop that are in need of loving owners.

15. Hunters: One Shot, One Kill

Law Abiding Gun Owners/Hunters/Sportsman and the term "spray and pray" should never be used in the same sentence. Learn how to shoot accurately and kill the animal with one shot. Learn how to hunt and shoot properly, never take potluck shots and hope they hit, that's the among the worst kind of irresponsibility.

16.Last, but certainly not least: Support the National Rifle Association.

For around the price of a box of premium rifle ammo, you can get a year’s membership to the NRA who continues to defend your rights as gun owners. They are out there defending your rights whether you asked them to or not, so why not suck it up and show a little thanks for their efforts and give them the support they need in return. http://nra.org

Outlaw Chef

2006-08-29T13:49:00.000-05:00

An outlaw chef in Chicago has gone out of control. Someone needs to notify PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals) immediately!

Quickly, get the number of that restaurant and make reservations before it's too late.

Lighthearted Monday

2006-08-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

Credit goes to my cousin Gil for sending this my way.

Rules of the Blues:

1. Most Blues begin "woke up this morning."

2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in right away: I got a good woman "with the meanest face in town."

3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes. Sort of.
I got a good woman with the meanest face in town.
I got a good woman with the meanest face in town.
She got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she weighs 500 pounds.

4. The Blues are not about limitless choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch; ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars are Chevy's, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Other acceptable Blues transportation modes include Greyhound buses and southbound trains. Walkin' plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUVs. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running.

6. Adults sing the Blues. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. In the Blues, "adulthood" means old enough to get the electric chair when you shoot that man in Memphis.

7. You can have the Blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont, Tucson, or North Dakota are just depression. The best places to have the Blues are still Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City. You cannot have the Blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the Blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg while skiing is not the Blues. Breaking your leg when your broken-down pickup truck rolled over on it is.

9. The following colors do not belong in the Blues: violet, beige, mauve (unless you"re truly desperate for a rhyme).

10. You can't have the Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is just plain wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

11. Good places to have the Blues: the highway, a jailhouse, an empty bed, the bottom of a whiskey glass. Bad places to have the Blues: ashrams, gallery openings, weekends in the Hamptons, golf courses, Tiffany's, and Ivy League institutions.

12. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man and it's an old black suit.

13. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?
Answer "Yes" if:
a. your first name is a southern state like Georgia
b. you're blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis
d. you can't be satisfied
e. you're older than dirt
Answer "No" if:
a. you once were blind but now can see
b. you're deaf
c. the man in Memphis lived
d. you have a trust fund or an IRA
e. you have all your teeth

14. Blues is not about color, it's about bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues; Gary Coleman could. Ugly old white people got a leg up on the blues. Julio Iglesias and Barbara Streisand will never sing the Blues.

15. If you ask for water and baby gives you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are: wine, whiskey, muddy water, beer, black coffee. Blues beverages are NOT: mixed drinks, kosher wine, sparkling water, Snapple, Starbucks Frappuccino, or Slim Fast. Although Rubber Biscuits and the Wish Sandwich are famous blues snacks, better stick to common blues grub like Greasy Bar-B-Que, Fatback and beans, and Government cheese. Blues food is never: Club sandwich, Sushi, or Creme Brule.

16. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a Blues death. So is substance abuse, the electric chair, or being denied treatment in an emergency room. It is not a Blues death to die during liposuction or from tennis elbow.

17. Excellent names for female Blues singers: Sadie, Big Momma, Bessie, or Fat River Dumpling. Excellent names for male Blues singers: Willie, Joe, Little Willie, Lightning, or Big Willie. Singers with names like Muffy, Sierra, Auburn, Alexis, Gwenyth, Sequoiz, Brittany or Rainbow are not permitted to sing the Blues, no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

18. The Build Your Own Blues Singer Name Starter Kit:
a. Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, Asthmatic)
b. First name (from above lists) or name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi).
c. Last name of a U. S. President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
Examples: Blind Lime Jefferson, Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Okay, maybe not "Kiwi")

19. I don't care how tragic your life is; if you own a computer, you cannot sing the Blues. You'd best destroy it. Fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or shotgun. Maybe your big ass woman just done sit on it. I don't care.

20. Hey there, you can READ! This too be a big ol' problem. Most folks singin' the Blues ain't never had much a chance for education. In the Blues the three R's stand for Railroads, Runnin' and Rehab.

21. It gots to be dark to sing the blues, preferably after midnight. Singin' da blues at noon is forbidden.

22. If none of the above works, try one last, pathetic stab at authenticity: name your guitar. Remember, Lucille is taken.

23. Epitaph on a blues musician's tombstone: "I didn't wake up this morning"

Thought for the Day

2006-08-27T09:41:00.000-05:00

Sorry I don't post often, but this time of year is very busy for me. Anyway heres My thought for you:

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. If you want to be successful and happy, BE YOURSELF.

later

Carry-On Knives for Terrorists?

2006-08-27T08:52:00.000-05:00

While looking through the Cold Steel website to see if they had any knives worthy of me drooling on, I came across the Nightshade Series of knives. They claim these knives are made of a fiberglass reinforced synthetic material that is nearly undetectable. They further state the knives can be taped, tied, or tucked just about anywhere on a person's body. Plus, they're really affordable. It's a keen idea just waiting for the wrong usage.

Without out and out saying it, I got the impression that one could tape this to their body and walk right through airport security and go through the metal detectors with a fairly effective stabbing instrument. Yes, that would be illegal and I do not condone trying it.

But let's say for the sake of argument that a group of terrorists order a bunch of these and tape them to their torso's, legs, shove one up the crack of their ass, or whatever. While the politically correct airport security folks are doing their best taking away granny's fingernail clippers and junior's bottle of 7-Up, and generally singling out the elderly, or frail, or children, or whoever so as not to get sued by Mohammed for racial profiling, the terrorists get sent on through to board the plane armed with pretty stout knives, while no one is any the wiser.

Now on the plane the terrorists have a strong chance of hijacking the plane, because they have large knives and the FFA has left all the sheeple passengers unarmed without so much as paperclip and spare shoelace to MacGyver themselves a machine gun from, and odds are the passengers are going to sit back let themselves be taken hostage only to get killed because the terrorists are on a suicide mission, instead of ganging up on them and fighting back. If there's a good chance I'm gonna die, I'd rather die a hero than a coward.

No, I'm not saying these non-metallic knives should be banned, what I am saying is that just when you think airport security has saved us all from ourselves, there's always another way. Taking away personal items isn't going to be as effective as racial profiling would be. Instead of digging through an 80 year old granny's purse, try patting down the foreign looking guy with the shifty eyes and fidgety hands

Any bets on if and when we start seeing these things show up on the news in the hands of airborne terrorists?

Comments

2006-08-25T18:16:00.000-05:00

Those of you who've already posted comments, they aren't gone or forgotten, but I'm moving to a new commenting platform with haloscan. It seems to be easier to use and more streamlined than the default blogger system. Thanks.

I'll try and see if I can somehow transfer your comments over to the new comment platform.

PETA: Hypocrites At Their Dumbest

2006-08-25T14:12:00.000-05:00

Not long ago I was having a discussion with several persons whom represent PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). I asked them several questions which they were unable to answer, and it got me to thinking just how hypocritical these people really are. A couple of them were vegetarians and that's where it really got twisted. It went something like this:

Me: You believe that killing animals for food is wrong?
Them: Yes, it's cruel to kill animals for any reason.

Me: Do you have any pets like cats or dogs?
Them: Sure, I love animals and enjoy their companionship.

Me: You take good care of them don't you, I mean take them to the veterinarian regularly and feed them well, right?
Them: Oh yes, absolutely. I love my pets like I love my own children!

Me: What do you feed them?
Them: Mostly canned foods, like Alpo or Purina. They like the soft foods better than the dry, so that's what I give them.

Me: So you're saying you feed your pets meat?
Them: I guess so, that's what they like.

Me: So then it's okay to kill other animals for food?
Them: No, killing animals is cruel for any reason!

Me: But you just said you feed meat to your pets.
Them: --silence--

Me: It seems to me if you feed meat to your pets then you're advocating the killing of animals for food.
Them: That's different though!

Me: How so? You already said that killing animals for any reason is cruel.
Them: Umm, uhh, well you see, uhh.. dogs and cats are omnivorous and need meat in their diet.

Me: Actually most dogs and cats are carnivorous by nature and are forced omnivorous diets when domesticated, but you bring up a good point. Humans have always been omnivorous for all of recorded history, and you're trying to force vegetarianism on people saying it's ethical, while saying that it's wrong to force vegetarianism on animals. Seems a little bit hypocritical don't you think?
Them: It's would be unethical to force animals to eat a diet un-natural to them!

Me: Isn't that exactly what you're trying to force on people though?
Them: Well, yes, but...

Me: Look, you said earlier that it's wrong to kill animals for any reason. Then you said it's okay to kill animals to feed other animals. Which is it, either killing for food is right or wrong, which side of the line are standing on?
Them: --silence--
Me: That's okay, your saying nothing is answer enough.

So what it basically boiled down to is that they don't know what they're doing. They have an agenda that doesn't fit into the confines of the real world. They say one thing and practice another. That's pretty hypocritical if you ask me.

When they quit picking on the human race and spread out to all life on earth then maybe we'll see something entertaining. Maybe they should start another branch organized to stop animals from hurting other animals. I'd like to see them teach a pack of starving coyotes that it's unethical for them to slaughter a farmer's cows for food. And why not? They already chastise the farmer for shooting the varmints that threaten his livestock. Maybe they should go to Africa and start a picket line between a pack of bloodthirsty lions and a herd of Gazelles. If they're going to stop animal killing, they're going to have to concentrate on more than just humans.

What these PETA people, especially the strict vegetarian ones fail to realize is that even herbivores turn carnivorous from time to time. It's not as uncommon as one might think to see a rabbit doe eat her young, more common among the older ones. I've seen deer eating birds or small rodents. There are just some things that a strict vegetarian diet doesn't provide that only meat products have. Natural herbivores instinctively know this and turn to meat when their bodies start craving certain nutrients, so it's ignorant to think that natural omnivores like humans would be healthier by not eating meat which is an important part of our diet. That's why we're called omnivores, because we have the need to eat meats and plants both. Humans aren't naturally herbivorous, and neither are dogs or cats. So if you vegetarian hypocrites want to push your agenda then you need to expand it to the whole animal kingdom, not just humans. Why the double standard?

Why am I not surprised, this coming from people who represent an organization that kills more animals than it helps.

Pluto: The Unplanet

2006-08-24T10:30:00.000-05:00

So Pluto is no longer a planet in out solar system: News Article

Was it worth declassifying it? All books throughout history that taught us Pluto was the 9th planet in our solar system are now wrong. Our teachers were wrong, our astronomers were wrong, everyone was wrong. Or were they?

Maybe this whole Pluto thing is going to be like the incredible edible egg ordeal. You know how that went, first it was good for you, then it was bad for you, then it was good for you again, then it was bad for you again, etc. The debate just kept going on and on and on like the pink battery-powered bunny with the drum.

Does it really matter how we define it? It's still what is and always has been. We call the tomato a vegetable when it's actually a fruit, we call the peanut a nut and it isn't, and neither is the cashew. But in the grand scheme of things, they are still what they are no matter what we call them.

What's next, the moon isn't actually made of green cheese?

Redneck Mafia

2006-08-24T07:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, y'all listen up now! I want to direct your attention to the sidebar again. This time you'll be checking out the Redneck Mafia blogroll. I've checked out each and every one of the blogs listed as of this writing, and most of them seem like a good bunch of bloggers. Expect to find bloggers on the list that are down-to-earth people, very few of them seemed to have their heads stuck in the clouds or even stuck in the mud for that matter.

Check 'em out yourself and if you like what you see give the blogroll owner a shout to sign your own blog up.

FOX News Journalists Kidnapped by Palestinian Group

2006-08-23T11:14:00.000-05:00

News story available on FOX News.

It seems that some Palestinian group has taken hostages and is trying to negotiate the release of the hostages in return for the release of all the Muslim prisoners detained by the United States.

Now I know that this is really going to boil some people's blood, but the solution to these hostage situations is simple: Do not negotiate hostage situations, period. If countries would quit negotiating for hostages, then there would be no need for hostage taking in the first place.

This is war, and we are all in it whether we want to be or not. It's important to understand that civilians are a part of the war, not just military personnel. It doesn't matter if you are a war correspondent or a factory worker in Podunk, Oregon, because if a terror group sees an opportunity to take a civilian hostage then that's what they'll do. But when they realize that taking hostages gives them no leverage whatsoever, then they'll stop wasting time and resources doing so.

I'd rather be tortured and beheaded by a terrorist group than to help strengthen their cause by giving in to their demands. To fight an enemy, one has to understand the enemy, be able to think like the enemy, and fight the enemy by destroying any tactical advantage they might have, that includes hostage situations.

As an example, Israel had the right idea with the way they invaded Lebanon. They hit the Hezbollah fast and hard, their goal was to annihilate the enemy as quickly as possible so that they in turn suffered as few casualties as possible. That is until the U.N. stuck their corrupt little political fingers into the pudding and screwed it up for Israel while giving the Hezbollah a chance to regroup, resupply, and strengthen. Israel should've told the U.N. to shove it and pushed forward with everything they had until they accomplished their goal.

That's exactly what the U.S. needs to do, is throw everything we've got at the terrorists, annihilate them as quickly as possible, and quit giving the enemy what they want by stopping the negotiating for hostage releases. It's war, people die, that's why it isn't called peace. That's why the U.N. needs to back off and disband, the liberals and leftists need to open their eyes and see that this isn't a utopian world in which we live, each and every one of us needs to show support for our troops, and most of all, we all need to be willing to sacrifice our all to protect freedom and abolish terror. This isn't strictly a military war or religious war, it's a war on all free people of the world.

No hostage negotiations, no compromises. Destroy the enemy's leverage and you'll soon destroy the enemy. Let me repeat what I said earlier: If countries would quit negotiating for hostages, then there would be no need for hostage taking in the first place.

101st Fighting Keyboardists

2006-08-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

My thanks goes to Capt. Ed of Captain's Quarters for his adding Western Wisdom to the 101st Fighting Keyboardists blogroll. I stumbled upon that particular blogroll some time ago and thought about trying to join it, but it kept getting pushed aside for later. Well, needless to say, later finally showed up.

If you haven't checked it out yet, you should, you'll find the resource over on the right side of the page. The 101st Fighting Keyboardists blogroll is a valuable resource for those who support the war, our troops, and the American way of life. Liberal jackasses might want to check it out too since they might actually gain some enlightenment and be freed of the wretched leftist brainwashing inflicted upon them.

PETA: Terrorists Influencing Your Children

2006-08-21T21:37:00.000-05:00

Did you know that PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) supports terrorist organizations, and has itself used terrorist tactics to it's advantage?

PETA donates huge amounts of money to the ALF and ELF (Animal Liberation Front & Earth Liberation Front) which are grouped into a category known as Ecoterrorists. These groups use violence against persons and properties that are engaged in various activities that they deem harmful to the earth or it's animal inhabitants. For instance they destroy logging company equipment, threaten medical researchers who use animals in their efforts to find cures to serious human diseases, vandalize sportsmens' lodges, harass hunters and fishermen, etc. Those are but a few examples of their activities. The seriousness of many of these cases have included death threats to pro-sporting (hunting, fishing, etc) politicians and their families. Though I don't remember the details, there was a certain senator or congressman who came under attack from PETA for supporting a bill that would allow a dove hunting season in a particular state. This man became the target of serious death threats against himself as well as his family because of it. There are literally thousands of these instances, just do a web-search that includes keywords such as: PETA, death threats, terrorism, attacks, vandalism, arson, assault, etc., and you will find plenty of reliable sources of information.

Along with these terror tactics, PETA also kills more animals than saves. In fact, PETA puts approximately 85% of all animals in it's care to death. This is not just putting gravely sick animals out of their misery. PETA kills several thousand healthy animals every year, and many of these animals are killed in cruel ways and planted on the properties of persons who do not align themselves with PETA's beliefs. This is done to set the person(s) up for criminal charges of cruelty to animals, giving whatever person or industry bad publicity and making PETA the so-called hero that came to the rescue.

So, how would you like these terrorists to freely come to schools and spread their terrorist propaganda to your children? That doesn't set too well does it? PETA does in fact do that very thing though. They are in your schools distributing their propaganda and influencing your children to turn against you if you are a sportsman or engaged in certain industries. Don't believe me? See for yourself, they are passing these out in schools: Your Daddy Kills Animals! (PDF) they also encourage your kids to visit this, among other websites at home, or better yet in the school library out of parental control: http://fishinghurts.com. Do you really want them filling your children's heads with all crap? PETA readily admits that it gears the majority of it's propaganda towards corrupting the minds of children, and it's your local schools that are going along with it, probably without your knowledge.

While we fight a global war on terror, let us not forget our homegrown terrorists that hide behind the veil of "do-gooder" organizations. They are corrupt, violent people and very dangerous on multiple levels.

Here are a few links of interest (I neither endorse these sites, nor guarantee the accuracy of their content):

http://www.peta-sucks.com/

http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

http://www.anti-peta.com/

As for me and my home, things will remain anti-PETA. I will continue to hunt, I will keep on fishing, I will savor every bite of my steak at supper time, and I will continue to help educate people as to the terrorist nature of PETA and other similar organizations.

Emerson Audio/Video Products

2006-08-21T18:48:00.000-05:00

Over the years I've owned many different Emerson products, ranging from VCR's, DVD players, Television Sets, and Stereo units. Some of them were gifts, others were purchased by me. All of them started out with me as brand new and ended up in a dumpster a year or less down the road.

I'm not one to mistreat or be rough with electronics, and I've never had much in the way of problems with most other brands, but for some reason every Emerson product I've owned has either started having problems within the first 6 months or completely crapped out after a year or so. I guess longevity and Emerson aren't two words that go hand in hand.

Perhaps I've just had a bad run of luck with them. Maybe others haven't experienced any problems with Emerson products. I'd like to hear about any experiences anyone has had, whether good or bad, with Emerson brand electronics.

Homebrew: Parabolic Microphone

2006-08-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

I’ve set out to build a portable parabolic microphone. I plan to build one with a budget of less than $10 and with any luck I can drop that down to less than $5 by using spare junk laying around here. My goal is to have it work at least as well as those you’d pay 300+ dollars for from a retail business. However, since I haven’t the funding to purchase a ready-made unit for direct comparison, nor do I know of anyone that owns one that I can borrow, I will have to find a way of making some sort of indirect comparisons that aren't completely devoid of useful information.

Several years ago I built a Ten-Tec Hi-Sensitivity Audio Amplifier Kit (part #1252) which I plan to use for amplifying the sounds picked up from the parabolic microphone, but since I use this for multiple applications, I did not figure it’s price into the above cost estimate. Had I needed to use a built-in amplification circuit for the parabolic microphone, I would either add about $10 to the estimate for the parts to build a simple unit myself, or add on the cost of an audio amplifier kit such as the Ten-Tec Utility Audio Amplifier (part #1550) which is currently selling for $15 + shipping.

Can I succeed? I don’t know, but it will be fun trying. There’ll be more to come later on (with pictures!) when I actually get up the gumption to begin working on it.

Guitar Effects Pedals

2006-08-18T13:21:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been thinking about getting a few effects pedals to go with my amp. Maybe the new sounds available will give me the inspiration I need to regain some creativity. I'm looking real close at the Line 6 series of effects pedals, they seem to be a few notches above the BOSS stomp-boxes for quality and adjustability.

I'll start out with the meat and potatoes of effects, a chorus pedal, and see where it goes from there. Later on I'll probably try and add in a compressor and an echo/delay box. That ought to give me plenty of gizmos to play with to find a unique sound. I'm looking to keep it clean, or mostly clean with a nice blues or jazz sound to it, nothing wildly overdriven or cheesy sounding. I don't want to get the crappy distortion pedals all these metal heads live on, besides, I can do that already if need be with just my all-tube amp, trust me on this one. But when I play, I like to actually hear the chords I play. Yes, teenage head-bangers, you can actually play notes and chords with a guitar, not just make obnoxious noise. There's more to life than taking a nice musical instrument and making it sound like garbage. The idea here is to enhance the sound of your instrument, not hide your inability to play behind tons of distortion and squealing.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Guitar: Stuck in a Rut

2006-08-15T16:13:00.000-05:00

I've been stuck in a rut with the guitar for quite some time now. I'm not progressing any at all with learning anything new at all. I even took a break away from the guitar for a few months and when I picked it back up, I realized I was still uninspired. I'm not sure what's killed my progress nor do I know how to grasp the motivation to pull myself up and out of this rut.

Ham Radio Withdrawals

2006-08-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

My HF/VHF base station radio equipment has been packed away in their boxes for a couple of months now in anticipation of the upcoming move back to Oklahoma. The antennas are all down and boxed up and the 80' tower is now gone on to a new owner a few miles away. This, of course, means no time on the air ragchewing or even just listening around on the bands. It sounds kinda cuckoo, but I started having ham radio withdrawals the other day. No, nothing like getting mysterious rf burns on my skin or hearing rare DX contacts in my head, more like just a feeling of aggravation at not being able to partake in one of my favorite hobbies.

Then it dawned on me, I have a H-T that I haven't fired up in almost a year, so I dug the little Icom T90A out and plugged in the charger. I figured even though I'm too far out from any repeaters to make any contacts, I could still listen around the bands. If you're a ham, you know that just listening isn't going to be good enough. Well I thought I'd give the 20" Maldol MH-510 whip planted on top of the diminutively sized H-T a try out here in the sticks.

By golly the propagation was good that evening! I keyed up gave my callsign on the Lake Park, GA repeater some 40+ miles away from my QTH and lo and behold the repeater came back with nice morse I.D. answer. Then came the QSO, and reports of full quieting on the repeater, and all the comments like there's no way you're sitting in your house in Dowling Park and coming across full-quieting with a little 5-Watt H-T. For me, that was impressive.

It was impressive enough for me when I could stand in the driveway at Patrick's house in Mustang, OK and come across the Edmond, OK repeater full quieting with that little H-T, any time of day or night. But to do that with my little H-T here surrounded by all these tall slash pines and whatnot, I didn't expect to get out more than 5 miles or so. Maybe I was off on my expectations, maybe not. I just know that I've cured my ham radio withdrawals for the time being.

Aggressive Drivers

2006-08-07T14:44:00.001-05:00

Why do drivers think that after they get their licenses they think they can drive however they want? I drive an 18-wheeler for a living and during the day I have at least 4 or 5 people change lanes with only 2-3 feet between them and my rig. Do these people have a deathwish or do they do not know it takes about 1 truck length per 7 mph to stop safely? I wish I knew. I have yet to have a wreck in my rig (knock on wood) and hope I never do. I also hope I never have a wreck that may be fatal. I have talked to other drivers that have been in a fatality accident and they say that it is very hard to get over it. Please tell everyone you know to not do this. Please pass this on. Not only that the more aggressive you drive the more gas you use. Another thing I deal with is people not yielding like they are supposed to. Or when I yield they change lanes to keep truckers from merging into traffic safely. I have had to merge into INTERSTATE TRAFFIC FROM A STANDSTILL! This will also get a person killed. Please drive courteously and safely. I do and plan on driving that way from now on. I don't want to be the driver that has to deal with a fatality because of someone's stupidity. Now I also realize that not all truckers drive safely. But because you never know, please give ALL of us truckers plenty of room to do our jobs safely. Thank you in advance.

British Grandma's Arrest Got Me To Thinking...

2006-08-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

See original blog posted on camedwards.com.

The fact that those who reside in England have no right to defend themselves got me to thinking about some things. We here in America have the right to defend ourselves, unlike our British neighbors across the big pond. What got me thinking though is if our right to self-defense isn't so overly restricted with various legislations as to make exercising that right so distressing and over-burdensome that it is almost not worth defending oneself at all.

Here in America, more times than not, a person who defends themselves from a criminal are often put through such distress afterwards that they often times are worse off than if they hadn't exercised their right of self defense at all. The criminal whom you defended yourself against can often sue you for damages, and if the criminal himself doesn't, many times the criminal's family does. So now you have to defend yourself in a legal battle to prove that your actions of self defense were justifiable. You are the one made to look like the bad guy, you are the one but through an emotional wringer, you are the one now being scrutinized by the public, media, jury, prosecuting attorney(s), and most likely the liberally biased judge in front of you.

What else happens to you? If you used a weapon to defend yourself the weapon is confiscated leaving you feel even more vulnerable and victimized than before. The investigations can tear apart your home and family life, let alone the forthcoming trails. There is no "innocent until proven guilty" in this country any longer. You are most likely to be treated just as guilty as the criminal is. It's up to you to prove your innocence, and if you can't do that you're up the creek without a paddle. So it looks to me more like you're guilty until you prove yourself innocent. If you can't prove that your actions of self-defense were justifiable, or if you can't afford decent legal representation, then often times you are penalized for your actions. It can be anything from having to pay for damages caused to the criminal to an all-out prison sentence for you while the criminal walks away a free man. I could give plenty of references to such cases, but I am too tired right now to reference them, and if you do a little research on your own, you can easily find the multitudes of case histories for yourself.

The point that I'm trying to make all basically boils down to the fact that often times there's such life-disrupting events that follow justifiable self-defense situations, that to many people it's not worth exercising the right in the first place. It's all thanks to the liberal lawmakers, they want your rights to be so over-regulated as to make it impractical to exercise them. Once they accomplish that, they can then have that right taken away under the justification that it's an antiquated right that is no longer used, nor needed. Which leads me to another point: Rights are like muscles, if you don't exercise them they will eventually atrophy, but that's getting into a topic for another day.

What would I do? I'd exercise my right to self-defense anyways. I'm a damn stubborn son of a gun who won't give up his God-given rights for anyone or anything, consequences be damned.

Ten-Tec Omni-VII

2006-08-06T09:36:00.000-05:00

Listen up all you hams, three days ago Ten-Tec announced on their website the upcoming addition to their line of ham transceivers, the Ten-Tec Omni-VII, an HF+6M rig that is set to be priced somewhere between the top of the line Orion II and the more affordable Jupiter. Set to be released during October of this year, I have a feeling these rigs are going to be back-ordered up the wazoo for quite some time.

There's not much else I can think to say about it except check it out for yourself.

Why I Looked to the Sky

2006-08-05T12:11:00.000-05:00

A nice thunder-bumper moved through the county last night. While I was standing at the window watching as the rain gutter overflowed, I took note that I should do something about that, like perhaps clean the gutters out later. About that time, I heard a loud crack and watched as the top half of slash pine came crashing to the ground at the treeline near the woodshop. It came within about 2 feet of crunching one of the dogs into the ground. With unfettered nerves, the little dog decided that would be it's new play-thing until such time as it was removed from it's territory.

Come this morning I decided it was time to move the dog's new pine-top toy back into the woods. I'm sure it'll make a nice diamondback rattler habitat soon enough. Anyway, the section was about 20 foot long, and fairly heavy, so while I was moving it I was really putting a lot of weight into it. I decided after I got it most of the way to where I'd lay it to rest that if I gave it just one more tug it'd be in place. So there I lunge backwards with everything I've got, and the next thing I know I'm looking up at the sky thinking "that sure is a purty sky this morning, but why am I looking straight up at it?". At that moment I realized that the branch I was using for a handle had sheered off at the trunk with no forewarning whatsoever, promptly landing me flat on my back before I knew what happened.

Normally stuff like that never bothered me, but it's been years since I've taken a fall of any sort. I guess being in my early thirties and not in as good of shape as I used to be, that my body is revolting. My back feels like it's been hit with a 10 pound sledge swung by a 300 pound lumberjack. I can't wait till tomorrow morning, after it's had a chance to really set in. I'm just glad I didn't land on a stump or any other objects protruding from the ground. I have a feeling I got real lucky this time, but irregardless, that's why I looked to the sky.

Buy American Made

2006-08-04T13:31:00.000-05:00

The other day I touched on what brand overalls were worn on the hit television show Hee Haw (see the original post here). Thinking about that entry prompted me to say a few words about supporting manufacturers of products proudly made right here in the U.S.A.

I firmly believe in supporting manufacturers that are U.S. owned, and operated here on U.S. soil. With that in mind, I direct your attention to Round House brand workwear. Proudly manufactured in Shawnee, OK, Round House has a loyal following for a reason: they build 'em with quality in mind. They're every bit as strong and durable as (if not stronger than) other nationally known brands, without costing an arm and a leg. (All you Okies better take note of that!)

The next time you get ready to spend those hard earned dollars on something, stop and think where your money's going. It's up to all of us to help keep American businesses strong and the American workers employed, and you can do your part by buying American made products. This is becoming critically important as more and more factories are shutting their doors, leaving American workers jobless, partly because of the purchases we Americans make on foreign made products instead of domestic ones. Next time, just look for the label the says "Made in USA".

Breaking News: General Hills to Quit Making Cereal

2006-08-03T08:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning Theodore “Teddy” Graham, President of General Hills dry goods division, passed away while eating breakfast. Despite his loveable name, Mr. Graham developed a bad reputation during his career. Interviews with those who worked closely with Mr. Graham revealed that he would fire workers off the plant floor for no other reason than he just didn’t like their looks. Because of his sour reputation, there is not expected to be a large audience at Mr. Graham’s funeral.

An interview with the chief medical examiner Dr. Paul Bearer revealed the details of Mr. Graham’s untimely death. “You see sir, it’s kind of ironic what happened. Mr. Graham was found lying lifeless at his breakfast table yesterday morning by his maid. The maid reported to us that Mr. Graham had been dining on a bowl of his company’s breakfast cereal ‘Alphabets’ when he died. My examination confirmed that he did indeed die with a scoop of cereal in his mouth. A detailed autopsy revealed the letters Y, O, U, R, E, F, I, R, E, and D were lodged in his throat.” Dr. Bearer concluded the interview with the following official statement: “It is my conclusion that Teddy Graham choked on his own words”.

Already in place, the new president of General Hills, political conservative Rusty Spoons has vowed to end the production of breakfast cereal at General Hills. When asked if this had anything to do with the sudden death of his predecessor Mr. Graham, the new president of General Hills dry goods division responded “I have decided to cease production of breakfast cereals here at General Hills simply because this country already has too many flakes”.

You read it here first.

Hee Haw and Overalls

2006-08-02T15:15:00.000-05:00

Remember the country show from the 70's and 80's called Hee Haw? I remember when I was growing up I'd sit and watch it every time it came on. It was just about my favorite show out of all of them.

I always wondered what kind of overalls they wore on Hee Haw. I never really saw them around anywhere I lived, so I never got to see a brand tag. Anyways, I finally found out what they were. If you've ever wondered, they are Liberty brand overalls. They're budget priced and made in China. Seeing that it was a low-budget show, I'm really not surprised that they used the cheapies, but I'm still kinda disappointed.

Now you know, even if you didn't want to.

Crap On Demand

2006-08-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

I have successfully trained my youngest niece's pit-bull to crap on demand. That's right, he actually buckles up and takes a crap on a simple voice command from me, even if he doesn't have to go, by golly he tries his best.

Michelle Malkin Targeted by Liberal Losers

2006-08-02T09:01:00.000-05:00

See it on Michelle Malkin. If that link doesn't work, go to http://michellemalkin.com and scroll down to the topic that says: Digg: Say hello to "fair and balanced" by Michelle Malkin

It's amazing how pissy and whiney the liberal population gets whenever a conservative takes the spotlight. This is one of the many reasons why liberals are at the top of my "People To Laugh At" list. They're bad losers. Liberals are all for free speech until it contradicts their viewpoints. They're showing just how weak and fearful they really are of the wholesome goodness that conservatism provides.

9/11 Video

2006-08-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

View it at Hot Air.

While you're at it, read this article at Popular Mechanics.

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - George Santayana

How do you feel about firearms

2006-08-01T16:06:00.000-05:00

How do you feel about people owning firearms for personal protection? Now read the following and see if you feel the same way. Picture yourself in this following scenario. You have a person break into your (or your loved ones) home. Then you or your loved one is beaten and raped. The suspect is never found. THIS HAPPENS EVERYDAY! I know someone that this very thing happened to. Before it happened she did not allow firearms in her home. She hated guns. She knew i was an avid gun owner. We had several discussions on this very topic. After her horrible ordeal she came to me with this question. "Will you train me properly on how to use a gun? And will you help me pick one out?" I was taken aback. She had caught me off guard. But of course I told her I would. After I had given her the training and advice she told me what had changed her mind. I hate that something like this would change someones mind. I would rather change someones mind by discussion. If this has changed your mind PLEASE support the NRA and support our 2nd amendment right to own and bear arms. Also I truly , TRULY pray that this NEVER happens to you or your loved ones.

http://nra.org/

Fidel Castro Steps Aside

2006-08-01T09:20:00.000-05:00

Read the news article here. It seems that Fidel Castro's health just keeps declining as his body becomes frail with age. I'm sure the stress of being a high and mighty communist dictator of a small island has played a significant role too. While he (most likely temporarily) steps aside, he leaves his power in the hands of his younger brother Raul who isn't quite the picture of youth himself. If Raul is anything like his brother at all, I'm still not sure there's too much to rejoice about at this point. I'd save up the party supplies for when the man actually keels over for good. Will the end of Fidel Castro, whenever that is, be the end of communist rule in Cuba? I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath. I can see the balance of power leapfrogging down from one communist party official to the next over the next few decades, and the people will remain unjustly oppressed.

Police Not Constitutionally Bound to Protect Individuals

2006-07-31T10:26:00.000-05:00

This may be old news to a few, but the majority of U.S. citizens don’t realize that the Supreme Court, as well as many other lower courts throughout the country, have ruled that police are not required to protect an individual. Why is this important? It is important because it means that the only person responsible for protecting you is you.

Let’s get started this way: The police cars you see driving around with words similar to “To Protect and Serve” is a load of bull. Our police forces are not sworn to protect us from what might happen. Their presence might prevent a crime from taking place in some instances, but it is not their duty to prevent crime from happening. Think about it, they aren’t fortune tellers, they don’t see into the future, they don’t know what might or might not happen from one moment to the next. Their job is to either stop a crime in progress or apprehend a person or persons whom have already committed a crime.

Now let’s look at the average police officer. He or she is not Robocop, Super Fuzz, or Captain America. The average police officer is more likely to be your average family man. He wants to take care of his family, and to do this he has to be in good health, and most importantly, he has to be alive. What this means is when he is doing his job, he wants to do it the safest way possible. Unnecessary risks are not a part of his vocabulary. He wants to go home to his family each day in one piece. What does this mean to the public? It means slow response times (from the time you dial 911, if you get through that is, to the time it takes him to get to you once he gets the call from his dispatcher). It means he would rather get to your house after the criminal has left, so that he isn’t in as much danger of encountering harm. This cop doesn’t want to walk into an unknown and potentially hostile situation if he can help it. He doesn’t know the layout of your house, he doesn’t know about you dog’s demeanor and whether it’s indoors or out. He doesn’t know how many criminals, where they are, how they are armed, or their state of mind. Therefore, his best course of action is to wait until the criminal has left so he can write a report and collect evidence, then return home safely to his family. This way he can search for the criminal later and hopefully have the opportunity to apprehend him in a safer and more controlled environment.

The liberal media doesn’t want you to know this, and neither do any of the left-wing politicians, nor the anti-gunners. These people want to leave you defenseless and ill-equipt to protect yourself, your family, and your home. They want to fill your head with lies and fairy tales of how the police will always be there to protect you. They want you to believe that the little phone in your hand with 911 on speed-dial is the only thing you need to thwart of the criminal element. They’ll have you believe that as soon as you call 911 that the police will instantly appear and capture the bad guy before can take another step.

Don’t listen to the liberal, left-wing, and anti-gun idiots. Let’s use some logic here, and say that an armed criminal has broken into your nice single family home in the middle of the night. The criminal is acting very aggressive, and you have no way of knowing what his intentions are. What you do know is your children are across the house now screaming and crying and afraid of the man tearing your house apart looking for valuables. He hears them crying and screaming, so he heads in their direction to shut them up. How do you think he’s going to do this? He sure isn’t going to sit down on the bed with them and read them a book to soothe them back to sleep. What do you do, do you pick up the phone and dial 911 hoping you get through, then sit and wait for 30 to 45 minutes for the police to arrive? Do you grab a baseball bat or kitchen knife and approach the bad guy, only to get shot and killed because his gun shoots farther than you can reach with your household item? Do you grab the pepper spray and hose him down only to find out he’s so doped up on drugs that it only makes him mad and he goes into a rage and kills your kids and then you? Or do you grab the 1911-A1 .45 ACP out of the nightstand drawer next your bed and shoot the criminal before he can harm you or your family? I think the best choice is quite obvious: family and self-preservation should be the logical choice, and the only way to do that is to eliminate the element of danger, in this case the bad-guy invading your home, using the fastest and most effective means possible.

It’s up to you to protect yourself and your family. No one else is going to do it for you. No one else is required to, either. I cannot stress that point enough. Take off those rose colored glasses, you’ll see that this is a dangerous world, it always has been and always will be.

Cam & Company for NRA News / Cam Edwards

2006-07-30T13:59:00.000-05:00

I’m going to use this space doing a short plug for one of my favorite blogs, run by Cam Edwards and co-contributor Farrah, at http://camedwards.com. I try to visit this site daily, as he keeps it updated with interesting topics and thoughts, which are well written and not filled with unnecessary drivel.

Let me clear the air right now and say that I do not know Mr. Edwards, nor have I ever met him. He runs a news show for the NRA called Cam & Company, which is an excellent program to listen to. The content of the show should be fairly obvious, it being for the NRA, so I will not go into a detailed rhetoric about the content. The show can be heard on Sirius Patriot 144 or online at http://NRAnews.com, so if you haven’t heard the show yet you should definitely tune in and listen.

Why should you listen to his show or read his blog? Because he’s about as American as they come. He tells it like it is, pulls no punches, and offers no insincere apologetics. It appears that Cam is not afraid to offend those who do not agree with his viewpoints, and frankly, that is a trait hard to find in this day and age of political correctness.

Mr. Edwards is doing a great service for this country and I salute him for it, our nation needs more men and women like him.

Shame On You Mel Gibson

2006-07-30T10:21:00.000-05:00

Mel Gibson seems to have a problem with alcoholism. He also seems to have a problem with those of the Jewish faith. You can read all about it here. Shame on you Mel, go get some help and get it quick. While you're at it, go read some books about the holocaust. Then go meet some real Jewish people and maybe you'll open your eyes some and see that they aren't the cause of all the world's problems.

But Mel apologized for his behavior you say? Sorry Mel, your apology isn't good enough. There is no excuse for endagering the public just because you want to drive somewhere drunk. You got off way too easy pal, and having to say you're sorry isn't a lesson well enough learned. Maybe next time you won't be so lucky when you go off in a drunken rage and run over some innocent family on their way home from the church or the temple. But you'd like that wouldn't you Mel? You'd like to run over that nice family that on it's way home from their son's Bar Mitzvah, that way you could have a clean conscience by blaming it on the alcoholism. You chose to pick up the bottle Mel, you knew what would happen. Don't blame your stupidity on the bottle Mel, it's your own fault you do the things you do.

Linkie Winkie

2006-07-29T21:44:00.000-05:00

Apparently Linkie Winkie is an experimental site that crawls blogs looking for mention of it's name and a link to it's site. It says if you time it right it might help you out (with traffic), so what I gather is if you're among the first few most recent blogs it crawls with a mention of it, it links back to your website from it's page. I suppose it's an interesting concept, but it'll take time to tell wether or not it's of any real value or not. I guess you just roll the dice and take your chances.

Update: It appears that I have been winked upon by the Linkie Winkie winkers. As I fired up the computer this morning, just a few hours after having made the initial posting about Linkie Winkie, I went and checked my stats. Lo and behold, I had a significant increase in hits, mostly coming from the Linkie Winkie wink at me on the Linkie Winkie site. Thanks goes to those who left comments, and of course to the creators of Linkie Winkie as well.

Solutions to Illegal Aliens Crossing into the United States

2006-07-29T11:35:00.000-05:00

The hot topic as of late seems to be the problem with illegal aliens crossing into the United States from Mexico. Therefore I have decided to put forth my thoughts on the subject and what should be done about it.

First of all, all of these media outlets need to quit softening the subject by calling them "illegal immigrants". They are not immigrants, they are invaders. If they were immigrants, they would be legal, but these people are not emigrating into the U.S. by legal channels, they are invading our homeland by illegal means. You got that all you liberal media jackasses?

I am not against Mexicans (or anyone else) coming to the United States by legal means, so long as they plan on becoming naturalized citizens, learn to speak English which is the official language of this country, pay taxes and follow our laws, then I will welcome them with open arms and maybe even a nice fruit basket welcoming them to the neighborhood. However, those people (invaders) that wish only to cross into the United States illegally, live off welfare or take the jobs of American citizens for peanut wages, those are the people I have no respect for. They are a heavy burden on our economy, our education system, our healthcare system, and are major sources of criminal activities including drug related crimes, as well as murders, rapes, thefts, burglaries, assault, vandalism, etc. Think about it, why would they worry about obeying our laws when they had to break the law to get here in the first place?

The United States government has the responsibility to protect it's land and it's people from these foreign invaders. When the government fails to do it's job, the burden falls on it's citizens. Unfortunately, the government is tying our hands with asinine (and technically unconstitutional) laws forbidding us from patrolling and defending our borders ourselves. The fault doesn't lie with the United States government completely though. The other major problem is the country that sponsors these illegal invasions our homeland, which, you guessed it, is Mexico. Mexico in and of itself is not the nice friendly neighbor our and their governments would like you to think it is.

The Mexican government knows all too well that their citizens invading our country are putting a major stress on all of our resources, and frankly, they don't care. Mexican officials do nothing to try and stop their citizens from invading our land, in fact they tend to look the other way while it's happening. Mexico doesn't want the responsibility of dealing with the burden of caring for it's own people. For them, the more of their citizens that leave their borders, the less strain their system is subjected to. Following me so far?

So obviously we can't count on Mexico doing anything about it's people invading our country, and it is obvious that our country isn't willing to do enough to protect us from the thousands of foreign invaders flooding into our country on a daily basis. We as citizens of the United States must not allow this trend to continue, if we want to keep our country ours. If we would all band together and do the following things, we might actually still have a chance at saving America while reducing the strain on our limited and ever declining resources:

Number one, we all need to tell the government just how strongly we feel about this issue. Pissing and moaning to our next door neighbor isn't going to help. We all have to flood our politicians with these complaints, and these complaints must be both sincere and demanding.

Two, we need to quit letting our lawmakers tie our hands unnecessarily. Right now, forming our own militia would not be such a bad thing. This is why our forefathers created the 2nd Amendment, among others, so that we, the citizens of the United States of America, would have the power to rise up and defend ourselves against any and all threats to our country, both foreign and domestic, as well as to go so far as to overthrow our own government, should it become too corrupt or tyrannical. (I believe we've already let our government become too powerful and corrupt as it is, but that's a topic for another discussion later on).

We need to build a wall along the border. Not a chain link fence with razor wire on top, but a steel reinforced concrete wall at least 15' thick and 40' high, with armed patrols both on top and at ground level. We need to implement IR and motion sensors along the wall to alert the patrols of possible activity. This wall would need to extend all the way from Brownsville, TX to Imperial Beach, CA. Yes, this would be a long, hard project, and cost the taxpayers a huge amount of money, but in the long run it will actually ease the burden on our system and improve the quality of American life. This might sound ridiculous at first, but in reality would be very effective. Just look at the wall that separates North and South Korea for an effective example.

We need to crack down illegals already inside our borders. Our government already knows where a large percentage of them reside and work, we just need convince our government to deport their sorry butts back to wherever they came from. Get the INS people off their duffs and make them hunt down the rest. Offer rewards for information leading to the arrest and deportation of anyone found to be in this country illegally.

These are but a few of the most effective things we can implement to help secure our borders and our nation's future. Time is running out, we need to act now or be willing suffer the consequences of our inaction.

Hillary's Bust

2006-07-28T18:23:00.000-05:00

Hillary Rodham Clinton's bust is going to go on display at New York's Museum of Sex. You can watch Michelle Malkin's report on it, which is quite amusing, here.

I knew there were some sick people in this world, I also knew that Hillary was one of them, but I never thought there would be a sculptor with that perverted a view of what art is. I've said it before, art is subjective, but there are limits to everything, and this goes waaaaay beyond any reasonable logic. We can only hope and pray that this bust gets destroyed before it does any harm.

Then again, maybe there would be some good uses for this bust after all. Placing a copy of this bust in the homes of known sexual predators would be sure to kill their sex drive, making society a safer place. Of course this would equate to cruel and unusual punishment, but who really cares? After all they are the scum of the earth and don't deserve any humane treatment anyway.

One could stick the bust in the farmer's field as a sort of scarecrow to keep the crows out of the crops or the foxes out of the chicken coop. Of course this may end up killing the crops and run off the livestock.

One could set up copies of the bust at key crossing points along the United States/Mexico border to scare away the illegal aliens (foreign invaders). There could be serious political repercussions though, as Hillary's bust could easily be mistaken for a weapon of mass destruction.

May God have mercy on our country for possesing such a grotesque and evil creation.

Nikon's New DSLR Teaser

2006-07-28T08:12:00.000-05:00

Visit the Nikon USA website and you will be greeted with a teaser to their new consumer level DSLR they are about to put on the market. There has been some speculation as to just what it will be named and how it will look, but I'm not putting stock in anything I read on non-Nikon websites. The speculation seems to be it will be called the D80 or possibly the D90, and some say it will either replace the D70s or fill the very narrow gap between the Nikon D70s and the Nikon D200. We'll just have to wait and see when Nikon makes it's official press release in 12 more days.

Some sites have even published pictures of what they say are actual pictures of the camera, but I find this hard to believe since Nikon is being extremely tight-lipped about any of the details until they are ready to make their official announcement. I wouldn't put a lot of faith in these image posts, chances are they are just Photoshop manipulations by someone not affiliated in any way with Nikon, who happened to have a little too much time on his hands. If I'm wrong, we'll soon find out.

But, since everyone is playing the guessing game, I'll add my own speculation: My guess, and it's a long shot, but I think they took the D70s electronics, swapped out the 6.2MP sensor for the D200's 10.2MP sensor, maybe added one or two extra menu options, slapped a slightly larger LCD on the back, and left the IR filter off the sensor for Nikonians who have been wishing for a factory produced DSLR that can do near-IR photography. It'll be interesting to see how close or far off the mark I am.

Photography: Artistic Value is Subjective

2006-07-27T14:05:00.000-05:00

The artistic value of a photograph is subjected to every imaginable scrutiny by anyone who views it. Remember the old saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure"? That very quote is applicable to the art of photography. Follow the rules, break the rules, it doesn't matter because someone is going to complain, going to nit-pick, and going to find something wrong with anything and everything.

I want to address the trend of what happens to those who dare venture onto the photography specific messaging boards, and why I choose to avoid them as if they were the plague. For those who have been ravaged by the foul vermin that populate these forums, I offer you some resolve: You are probably not nearly as bad a photographer as they made you feel to be. For those who rose to the top in those same forums, you are probably not nearly as good a photographer as what they made you feel to be.

There are obviously exceptions to what I just stated, but remember, these are the exceptions, not the majority! In case you haven't figured it out already, on the internet you can pretty much be whom ever you wish to be. Now, let's put two and two together to make four. These photography forums are populated by an overwhelming number of self-proclaimed "professional photographers" as you may or may not have already figured out. Most of the supposedly professional photographers end up being teenagers or retirement age folks who's career (past, present, and probably future) never involved real photography. I will use fake aliases for the sake of anonymity.

Case #1: "Z. Boobledorfer" is a frequent poster on photography forum "www.photoforumforsuckerswhodon'thaveanythingelsetodo.nut" and has over 160,000 posts in the past two years. He tells everyone he has his own photography business, in fact he even advertises it in his catchy little signature line of each post. Wow, the link actually works and takes you to a real website! Now here lies the problem:

If Z. Boobledorfer is such a successful professional photographer, how does he find the time to post on the message boards so much?
If Z. Boobledorfer is such a professional photographer, how come the EXIF data on his photographs that he posts both on the forums and on his "business site" are from either a digital point and shoot camera (all of which are consumer level) or a consumer's entry level digital SLR such as a Canon Digital Rebel XT, Pentax *ist D, or Nikon D70?
If Z. Boobledorfer is such a professional photographer, why do all his photographs look like snapshots? (Learn about lighting, exposure, focus selectivity, depth of field, and composition techniques and you will readily be able to tell a snapshot from a well thought out professional looking photograph.)

Here is how we come to the find the truth. It takes a little investigation, though it is quite easy. You see, Z. Boobledorfer is still just a teenager, still in high school or maybe he just graduated. We know this because every once in a while he'll slip in his postings and revert to things that are a dead giveaway. Someone will call him on his pro claim eventually, you just have to watch for it, or use the forum's handy search button to research his past posts. You will probably find things such as this:

Z. Boobledorfer refers to his daddy's experiences a lot, instead of his own, in off topic threads.
Z. Boobledorfer's EXIF data on his picture posts can be quite telling.
Most pro's don't get a childish attitude towards everyone else's work, defending their own faults while belittling everyone else for theirs. (With the exception of those in his little clique.)
Z. Boobledorfer's pictures are only praised by a precious few other "pros" who just happen to be in his little aforementioned clique.

What gives Z. Boobledorfer the right to call himself a pro? Well, here are his excuses and reasoning:

Z. Boobledorfer thinks he's a real professional photographer because he invented his own catchy business name like "Z. Boobledorfer Photography" or "Perfect Light Photography".
Z. Boobledorfer is paying $10 a month out of his minimum wage salary (probably from someplace like McDonald's or Food Lion) for his own domain name with his "business" name as the URL.
Z. Boobledorfer uses the premise that he made a few buck off his sister or cousin for taking snapshots at their wedding. He doesn't realize they were just too cheap to hire a real wedding photographer because of an already stretched wedding budget, so they looked to a family member with an interest in photography who had a working camera, and wouldn't charge and arm and a leg. This of course, in Z. Boobledorfer's mind makes him a bona fide professional wedding photographer, mind you.

"But Z. Boobledorfer has such nice looking pictures", you say. Yes, some of them might actually look pretty good, after he spends a week in Photoshop Elements fixing all his mistakes. Put a monkey in front of a typewriter and eventually they'll type the complete literary works of William Shakespeare. In Z. Boobledorfer's case, he posts maybe 3 out of every 500 photographs he takes, because the rest are so terrible he dare not expose them to anyone. Yes, really-really-real pros take bad pictures too, and have to sort out the bad from the good, but not at a 3 out of 500 rate. A skilled photographer will have a closer to 1:5 or even 1:2 and in some cases even 4 out of every 5 images will be acceptable. But Z. Boobledorfer is a loooooooong way away from that ratio. Also bear in mind, we pesky humans are normally much more critical of our own work than other's. Other's images usually tend to look better than our own, even if they aren't. Those are words of wisdom to remember. In any event, now you know that Z. Boobledorfer is not the actual pro he proclaims to be. His so called business he just started up is nothing more than a website, and he has no clientele at all except for his imaginary friends.

Case #2: "Dr. Pina~Colada" claims he is a professional photographer and expert in the field of digital photo editing. Dr. Pina~Colada even has his own portrait in his profile to prove he's a middle aged man, not some "teenage-punk-pro-photographer-wannabe". Ask him about his qualifications, and he'll tell you that he pulls in between $60K and $80K a year doing his job. He'll also tell you that he uses a camera nearly every day on the job. What Dr. Pina~Colada is not telling you is that he is a realtor for Millennium 22 Real Estate. His use of the camera is taking quick snapshots of people's home who are looking to sell. In case you haven't noticed, any 5 year old with a $5 My Little Pony disposable point and shoot camera can take real estate photo's just as good, if not better, than Dr. Pina~Colada can. It doesn't take a pro to stand in the middle of the street and take a few handheld snapshots of Mr. & Mrs. Doe's 70 year old shack, ditto the cluttered interior. Dr. Pina~Colada then spends fifteen minutes in Photoshop CS2 cloning out the weeds and dog crap in the yard, the missing shingles on the roof, and the cracks in the walls.

In Dr. Pina~Colada's mind, this makes him a professional photographer, instead of an overpaid Real Estate agent with a camera. Dr. Pina~Colada feels that his limited and overly abused photo-editing tricks make him a real expert at digital photo editing. He feels as if he is more qualified to spout off his poorly executed tricks than the real pro's who learned the program inside and out well enough to write a highly acclaimed book on the subject. Then poor Mr. Unsuspecting posts his otherwise very good image on the forum, only to have his image stolen and edited without prior permission from him(which is a federal copyright infringement), by Dr. Pina~Colada, and reposted on the forum as "how it should look". (Of course Dr. Pina~Colada puts some subtext stating he will gladly take it down if the owner of the photograph so wishes, because he knows his ass is riding a fine line and he could be sued for copyright infringement). The question is, just how should Mr. Unsuspecting's photograph look? Mr. Unsuspecting was proud of his very good image but all of a sudden the picture police have pounced on him, pointing out all these minor (inconsequential) flaws that should have been compensated for or otherwise corrected in post-processing. Of course, Mr. Unsuspecting is now crushed that his picture didn't meet these "professionals'" high standards. But then he is also thankful that the "pros" have stepped in with their all knowing advice and trashed his beautiful image to make it look like what they think it should look like.

Here's the problem, Mr. Unsuspecting: Photography is an art. Your photography is your art. All art, no matter what medium, is subjective. What one person likes, someone else hates. What is perfect to one is flawed to another. Yes, we are back to one man's trash is another man's treasure. Did someone come along behind Leonardo da Vinci and paint over the Mona Lisa telling him that's what his painting should look like? I don't think so! A person's art is their own, and if you like it, that's all that matters. Ansel Adams didn't have someone else manipulate his photographs for him in the darkroom, telling him that's how his photographs should look. No, Mr. Adams did his own darkroom work, and when he was satisfied with his work, that was good enough.

So maybe you aren't an Ansel Adams or a Leonardo da Vinci, but you are the person whom you are. Let me rephrase that: You are the artist of your own work, your art is your own and no one else's. If your art satisfies you, then screw what all the self-proclaimed experts think. Don't take their advise, don't take their B.S. If you really want to improve, listening to them will do nothing but turn your work into their vision. Once you become the artist that they want you to be, then they will lift you up on their imaginary pedestal. But the problem is, they aren't teaching you to be creative, they are teaching you to make your vision look like their vision. That's not really what you want to do.
What should you do if want to improve your skills then? Practice, practice, practice! That's the most important thing. Read photography books by real photographers, these books teach you how to develop your own style and vision. They teach you techniques that improve your photography while letting you keep your own unique style. Take an accredited photography course, again they teach you the proper techniques that can be applied to your own style of photography. And finally, stay away from the photography forums. Most professional photographers don't use those forums for the following reasons:

Posting their images on these forums is yet another way to have their already valuable works stolen and used without permission.
Professional photographers spend their working lives doing photography. Usually the last thing they want to do regularly is extend that to their recreational time. (Ever notice that a professional landscaper has one of the crappiest lawns in the neighborhood, or that a professional singer normally doesn't frequent karaoke bars?)
Real professional photographers already know about the fake pro's that populate these photography forums and avoid the forums so as not to be mistaken for one them.
A true professional will help you learn how to develop your own artistic vision instead of pushing their own ideals on you. This requires one on one private critique, not public humiliation like that found on the forums. (This public humiliation will discourage most people from ever picking up a camera again, very few people gain any true drive to improve their artistry after having their works ripped to shreds in the public square while being flogged with a cat o' nine tails.)

My advice all boils down to a few simple things:

Avoid the photography forums, they are mostly populated my a bunch of hungry jackals waiting for fresh meat to sink their teeth into.
Develop your own style that pleases you, quit worrying what other think.
Learn from your own mistakes, not from the misguided critique of unqualified individuals.
Study books by real experts in the field and/or take accredited courses.
You are your own worst critic, lighten up on yourself.

If you are looking for some books to study on, there are some very good books that teach everything from basic to advance techniques that are put out by John Hedgecoe. I will provide links to some of his books for your convenience (please note that some of the information in his books is redundant from one book to the next):

The Photographer's Handbook
John Hedgecoe's Complete Guide to Photography
How to Take Great Photographs
John Hedgecoe's Photography Basics
There are various other books by this author that cover specific topics more in depth, such as landsape, portraiture, and black & white photography.

I also recommend if you are interested in photography courses that you look into what is available at your local community college, as well as finding out about photographic workshops that may be coming to your area. The photographic workshops generally last anywhere from one day to a week and cover anything from basic to advanced techniques, digital and film, and specific areas of photography such as fashion, sports, or architecture.

If you are unable to take a regular course offered locally, there is the option of photographic correspondence courses. These types of courses are generally not as good as the "brick-and-mortar" schools, however there is one exception to the rule: The New York Institute of Photography (NYIP) is an excellent resource for learning photography or honing the skills you already have. I highly recommend this course if your schedule doesn't include the option of local schooling. NYIP teaches you everything from basic to advance techniques, as well as giving you excellent instruction on the business end of photography.

Accepted by PineCone Research

2006-07-27T10:09:00.000-05:00

That was fast, just one day after applying to PineCone Research, I received a notice stating that I was accepted onto the research panel, as well as receiving my first evaluation study. I think I might actually enjoy being a part of this research panel. Well, that's all I have to say about it. Seems a waste to make such a short blog entry, but that's how the cookie crumbled.

PineCone Research

2006-07-26T14:24:00.000-05:00

For those of you out there who know to look for the proverbial "needle in a haystack" ads for PineCone Research, those banner ads are not a fable. I recently ran across a bonafide banner ad for PineCone Research and proceeded to fill out the application. I have no idea whether or not I will be accepted onto the research panel, but at least I was able to apply. If you are wanting to find a banner ad for them, they are out there campaigning right now, so get your browser running and head out on the information highway.

Canon EOS KISS Digital N

2006-07-26T09:43:00.000-05:00

Canon photographers in Japan are being treated to the EOS KISS Digital N, which here in the U.S. it's the Digital Rebel XT, and other parts of the world it's known as the EOS 350D. Now I'm not real sure what to think of this. Is Japan just now catching on to the KISS fad of the 70's & 80's, or is Canon just trying to rub salt in the wounds of American KISS fans by not marketing the KISS labeled Rebel over here? It seems to me that there are quite a few KISS fans over here that would grab up the KISS version of this camera, if it were made available over here. Perhaps Canon could have boosted their sales here in the U.S. by offering both models to U.S. customers. Allow KISS fans to order the EOS KISS Digital N, and for those who aren't stuck a 1970's or 1980's timewarp or just aren't KISS fans, let them buy the one marketed as the Digital Rebel XT. At least by offering both models they are opening themselves up to a broader customer base... unless Nikon decides to up the ante by marketing a special AC/DC version of the D50 or D70s. How totally gnarly would that be?

Now as an afterthought, I've also noticed that the Kiss version of the camera is written in a different script than that of the band KISS. So perhaps the name of the camera wasn't intentionally named after the band, but rather just a name, such as how the Rebel is just a model name. With that in mind, perhaps the marketing geniuses at Canon finally made a connection in names and paid some royalties to Gene Simmons for using the KISS band's logo and make-up likenesses in an advertisement. Otherwise, if it were a special edition named after the rock group, then I believe the KISS logo from the band would have been duplicated for use on the camera body, instead of the script lettering. Nevertheless, kudos to the Canon marketing team for making the connection between the names and using it as a coy marketing ploy in Japan.

Regardless, I still think Nikon should make a limited edition AC/DC DSLR with Angus Young signature series DX lenses.