Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. -Theodore Roosevelt
Sunday, November 02, 2008
QotD: Teddy Roosevelt edition.
If they understood "restraint", they wouldn't be running for office.
As I said in a comment at Marko's, I'm only really happy when one team has Congress and the other has the White House. Anytime one side or the other has had all the keys to the store, they've gone on an orgy that made "Bluto" Blutarsky look like Simeon the Stylite.
Believable fan fiction.
I am given to understand that there is an entire subgenre of "Fan Fiction" devoted to Kirk and Spock doing the bow-chicka-bomp-bom thing. I didn't get this at all because I never really picked up that subtext from Captain Velour and his pointy-eared sidekick.
However I would totally find it believable if the stories instead centered around Chris Matthews gettin' jiggy with The Anointed One. I mean, Matthews can barely say the guy's name without an ecstatic quaver in his voice.
The topic of the show this morning was "How grateful are you to be allowed to be alive at this awesome and transcendent moment in history?" I gotta say this for Chris: He sure can enunciate clearly with his mouth full.
However I would totally find it believable if the stories instead centered around Chris Matthews gettin' jiggy with The Anointed One. I mean, Matthews can barely say the guy's name without an ecstatic quaver in his voice.
The topic of the show this morning was "How grateful are you to be allowed to be alive at this awesome and transcendent moment in history?" I gotta say this for Chris: He sure can enunciate clearly with his mouth full.
Say what you will about Barry...
...but the man's an even better gun salesman than Hils.
Then again, guns always sell briskly in uncertain times. I wonder if any manufacturers of freeze-dried food are publicly traded?
Then again, guns always sell briskly in uncertain times. I wonder if any manufacturers of freeze-dried food are publicly traded?
Ouch!
When chambering a round after a fast magazine change, and the slide of your pistol has Slip 2000 all over it, and an 18# recoil spring, and you use the "grasp the slide over the top with four fingers and slingshot it" technique, and your weak hand slips... well... if you don't get that third digit out of the way of the rear Trijicons which are being propelled forwards by that beefy spring, you're going to lose your fingernail right down to the quick. Ow! I shoulda cut them all off before going shooting; I know better.
Other than that, it was a pretty good day at the range. I put about thirty more rounds through my .38/44 Heavy Duty. Mr. Middleton's bullseye gun needs a good scrubbing; perhaps even of the "sideplate off" variety. I was lights out with the 1911s. (Well, for me at least.) Even one-hand weak hand stuff wasn't straying outside what would have been the A-zone were it an IPSC target. Why can't I shoot like this when there are bowling pins in front of me, by the way?
Other than that, it was a pretty good day at the range. I put about thirty more rounds through my .38/44 Heavy Duty. Mr. Middleton's bullseye gun needs a good scrubbing; perhaps even of the "sideplate off" variety. I was lights out with the 1911s. (Well, for me at least.) Even one-hand weak hand stuff wasn't straying outside what would have been the A-zone were it an IPSC target. Why can't I shoot like this when there are bowling pins in front of me, by the way?
Saturday, November 01, 2008
"What did you dress up as for Halloween, Tam?"
"An adult. You?"
Not many trick-or-treaters came by for the Reese's cups last night. I wound up eating two and handing out ten or twelve.
The kids a few houses down had a massive Halloween party going, with cars parked down both sides of the street at 11:00, when I started wrapping things up for the day. When did Halloween stop being a holiday for kids to put on masks and get candy and start being about twenty- and thirty-somethings getting dressed up and vomiting in their bushes after too many Icehouses?
When did parents start shuttling kids from block to block in their cars?
When I was younger, you got "too old and too cool" to trick-or-treat sometime around your freshman year in high school. I know I had at least four last night who were about ready for college.
Sigh. What an uncool holiday it's become. Maybe I'll just leave the porch light off next year...
Not many trick-or-treaters came by for the Reese's cups last night. I wound up eating two and handing out ten or twelve.
The kids a few houses down had a massive Halloween party going, with cars parked down both sides of the street at 11:00, when I started wrapping things up for the day. When did Halloween stop being a holiday for kids to put on masks and get candy and start being about twenty- and thirty-somethings getting dressed up and vomiting in their bushes after too many Icehouses?
When did parents start shuttling kids from block to block in their cars?
When I was younger, you got "too old and too cool" to trick-or-treat sometime around your freshman year in high school. I know I had at least four last night who were about ready for college.
Sigh. What an uncool holiday it's become. Maybe I'll just leave the porch light off next year...
Urg...
It's true. Of a cool autumn morning, you really can feel where you've broken various bones. My right thumb is killing me and my left ankle, normally no trouble at all, is all twingy.
On the other hand, it should be kissing up to seventy degrees today, which is perfect shootin' weather. (Actually, any weather is perfect shootin' weather, but I'll not quibble with a last round of warm sunshine.) I have to go to the range today to atone for my dismal showing last Saturday morn...
On the other hand, it should be kissing up to seventy degrees today, which is perfect shootin' weather. (Actually, any weather is perfect shootin' weather, but I'll not quibble with a last round of warm sunshine.) I have to go to the range today to atone for my dismal showing last Saturday morn...
Friday, October 31, 2008
Barack Obama supports a federal ban on CCW.
Barry on CCW.
If you own guns and vote for this guy, you are, to put it simply, a f$cking moron.
(H/T to Bucks Right.)
If you own guns and vote for this guy, you are, to put it simply, a f$cking moron.
(H/T to Bucks Right.)
Purina Peasant Chow.
Mmmmm. Irish bangers from Fresh Market, to be accompanied by some manner of cabbage. (I'm on kind of a kick here...)
On a totally unrelated note, how come I had never heard Coldplay 'til today?
On a totally unrelated note, how come I had never heard Coldplay 'til today?
Quote of the Day: "Emotional incontinence..."
From reader Alath in comments here:
Following your links back to the New York Post article (Here. ed.), it is eye-popping to see how extremely emotionally unstable this crowd is. Back spasms? Daily phone melt-downs? They're just aswim in the tempestuous seas of their own emotions; anchorless.
It's easy to see why they think being armed means going on a shooting rampage whenever you have a bad hair day. For people with complete emotional incontinence and to whom the concept of self-mastery is utterly unknown, that's probably what it would be like.
Smoke 'em if you got'em.
Another kind of transition team appears to be at work, one that is helping terrorists transition from "Wiretapped and Alive" to "Smoking Hole and Dead" even if they're maybe not so much actually inside Iraq or Afghanistan.
It's almost as though they feel they're playing against a shot clock now, and someone has said "Okay, enough wiretapping; we've got the data we're going to get. Let's get these guys off the board before the hippies take over."
It's almost as though they feel they're playing against a shot clock now, and someone has said "Okay, enough wiretapping; we've got the data we're going to get. Let's get these guys off the board before the hippies take over."
Yes, but...
"A vote for McCain is a vote for the status quo!"
Uh, yeah. Exactly. And it should tell you something that I'd even prefer another Patriot Act, another foreign war of questionable necessity, and another stock market crash to the big bolus of HopeyChangey I'm being threatened with by the other side. I mean, worst case scenario, we wiretap some more hippies, bomb some more foreigners, and some more stockbrokers jump out of windows. Really, how does this hurt me?
The other side wants to do things like sell me bad health insurance at gunpoint. Yeah, 'cause you guys have done such a splendid job with my retirement funds, now I want to let you run my doctor's office, too. If your health care plan is so great, how come I'm no doubt going to be thrown in jail if I don't opt in?
One side is offering me politicians acting like politicians, which is to say power-hungry, callous, and scheming; the other side is trying to offer me politicians acting like missionaries, and that scares the crap out of me. Given a choice between the devil I know and the devil I don't, I'm going to stick with the one I know. Especially if the one I don't is offering me milk and cookies.
Uh, yeah. Exactly. And it should tell you something that I'd even prefer another Patriot Act, another foreign war of questionable necessity, and another stock market crash to the big bolus of HopeyChangey I'm being threatened with by the other side. I mean, worst case scenario, we wiretap some more hippies, bomb some more foreigners, and some more stockbrokers jump out of windows. Really, how does this hurt me?
The other side wants to do things like sell me bad health insurance at gunpoint. Yeah, 'cause you guys have done such a splendid job with my retirement funds, now I want to let you run my doctor's office, too. If your health care plan is so great, how come I'm no doubt going to be thrown in jail if I don't opt in?
One side is offering me politicians acting like politicians, which is to say power-hungry, callous, and scheming; the other side is trying to offer me politicians acting like missionaries, and that scares the crap out of me. Given a choice between the devil I know and the devil I don't, I'm going to stick with the one I know. Especially if the one I don't is offering me milk and cookies.
I'm neither shaken, nor stirred. Just amused to death.
Erica Jong is issuing threats of blood-in-the-streets revolution. It's enough to make me feel all warm and bitter and clingy inside.
Meanwhile, I woke this morning to an Obama commercial on the TeeWee. Either nobody on the campaign has a sense of irony, or we have a mole in his ad agency. There were multiple (at least two) images of The Man Himself with arm raised rigidly at an approximately 45-degree angle, and it closed with him saying "...and that's how we will emerge from this crisis. As one nation! One people!"
"One leader!" I couldn't help but add.
Jeez. Either that was deliberate, or there are some clueless mofos on Madison Avenue these days. (Then again, Madison Avenue thought that "Virago" was a manly name for a motorcycle, so you never know...)
Meanwhile, I woke this morning to an Obama commercial on the TeeWee. Either nobody on the campaign has a sense of irony, or we have a mole in his ad agency. There were multiple (at least two) images of The Man Himself with arm raised rigidly at an approximately 45-degree angle, and it closed with him saying "...and that's how we will emerge from this crisis. As one nation! One people!"
"One leader!" I couldn't help but add.
Jeez. Either that was deliberate, or there are some clueless mofos on Madison Avenue these days. (Then again, Madison Avenue thought that "Virago" was a manly name for a motorcycle, so you never know...)
God Bless America!
In what other country can you get a time share on a cow? (And get to evade The Man while you're at it?)
Although I have no particular interest in milk fresh from the bovine, the idea appeals to the rebel in me.
Although I have no particular interest in milk fresh from the bovine, the idea appeals to the rebel in me.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
My kind of recipe...
1 fresh bratwurst from the Fresh Market.
Some beer.
Some Worcestershire sauce.
Some pepper.
Some salt.
Rest of the sauerkraut from that jar in the 'fridge.
Slice brat. Put in frying pan with beer, Worcestershire sauce. Shake salt & pepper over pan some. When good & sizzling, add kraut. Stir some until kraut starts to brown a bit and smell drives you wild with hunger. Transfer whole mess into bowl. Eat. Yum.
Some beer.
Some Worcestershire sauce.
Some pepper.
Some salt.
Rest of the sauerkraut from that jar in the 'fridge.
Slice brat. Put in frying pan with beer, Worcestershire sauce. Shake salt & pepper over pan some. When good & sizzling, add kraut. Stir some until kraut starts to brown a bit and smell drives you wild with hunger. Transfer whole mess into bowl. Eat. Yum.
Quandary:
In the (temporary) absence of an AR-15 in the Armory de la Tam, with what do I fend off the zombie hordes?
1) M1 Garand?
2) FN-49 in 8mm Mauser?
3) SVT-40 Tokarev?
4) Remington Model 11 riot gun?
I've got enough ammo in .30-'06, 8x57JS, and 7.62x54R to reenact The Gauntlet, but I'm a little light on 12 gauge; maybe 100 rounds or so. Suggestions are being entertained in comments...
1) M1 Garand?
2) FN-49 in 8mm Mauser?
3) SVT-40 Tokarev?
4) Remington Model 11 riot gun?
I've got enough ammo in .30-'06, 8x57JS, and 7.62x54R to reenact The Gauntlet, but I'm a little light on 12 gauge; maybe 100 rounds or so. Suggestions are being entertained in comments...
Today In History: Like it was a clue or something...
On this date in 1864, Denmark ended the Second Schleswig War by signing Schleswig, Holstein, and a player to be named at a later date over to the Prussians, whose Dreyse "needle gun"-armed hordes had overrun southern Denmark anyway and, well, possession was nine tenths of the law.
The Austrians had allied with their fellow Deutsche-speakers in the fracas, and to celebrate their joint victory, the Prussians stomped the holy heck out of them a year and a half later, then took a couple year breather before beating France to a paste.
Europe in the latter half of the 19th Century was a generally peaceful place, but every time there was a dustup, it seems that it was called the "Something-Prussian War". Cops call that "the usual suspects"; authors call it "foreshadowing".
The Austrians had allied with their fellow Deutsche-speakers in the fracas, and to celebrate their joint victory, the Prussians stomped the holy heck out of them a year and a half later, then took a couple year breather before beating France to a paste.
Europe in the latter half of the 19th Century was a generally peaceful place, but every time there was a dustup, it seems that it was called the "Something-Prussian War". Cops call that "the usual suspects"; authors call it "foreshadowing".
That's pretty uncool.
Julie from Western Australia reports on the new plan for mandatory intarw3bz censorship in her country. For the children, of course.
To say she is less than amused would give me a pretty good leg up in the Understatement of the Year contest.
To say she is less than amused would give me a pretty good leg up in the Understatement of the Year contest.
It ain't haute cuisine.
So, last night I threw a buttered slice of seeded rye in the frying pan, with a big thick slice of Swiss atop it. Sort of an open-face grilled cheese sandwich. Then I surrounded it in the frying pan with sauerkraut.
My roomie looked at me like I had lost my mind. Apparently she had never seen fried 'kraut before.
Well, I thought it was yummy...
My roomie looked at me like I had lost my mind. Apparently she had never seen fried 'kraut before.
Well, I thought it was yummy...
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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