Yet another Googler arrived at my doorstep via the search item "music hath charms to soothe the savage beast".
If sir will step around to the tradesman's entrance, we will get sir a clip-on tie and a polyester suit coat so that sir conforms to the dress code of the establishment.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Best. News. Story. EVAR!
Woman pulled over for speeding. Turns out she's blotto. Problem: Can't take her to the county hole and leave her 1-year-old baby in the car. Solution: Call home for a responsible adult to come fetch the tyke while they put the bracelets on mumsie.
Further problem: A severe and ongoing shortage of responsible adults...
(H/T to Shermlock Shomes.)
Further problem: A severe and ongoing shortage of responsible adults...
(H/T to Shermlock Shomes.)
The flower of the white race strikes again...
To your left you will see a member of the master race. You can tell by the piercing blue-eyed gaze, the high cheekbones, thick golden locks, firm and resolute jaw, and... Oh, jeez, I can't do this with a straight face.
Anyhow, apparently this walking doctoral dissertation in phrenology and seven of his troglodyte buddies pooled their beer money and got an actual real live girl to travel down to Bayou Country from Oklahoma, apparently for the purposes of joining their Koven or Klavern or Klubhowse or whatever the hell it's called. There was some sort of argument in paradise, however, and the would-be Brunhilde decided she didn't want to play their reindeer games anymore, and Chuck Foster (who would be the protosimian in the picture) kind of, you know, killed her.
Too bad your girlfriend thing didn't work out, Chuck. Maybe you'll have better luck in romance when you get where you're headed.
Snark to bring a tear to your eye...
The Tory Hitchens on The chOsen One:
(H/T to Kevin at The Smallest Minority.)
And it was interesting how the President-elect failed to lift his admiring audience by repeated – but rather hesitant – invocations of the brainless slogan he was forced by his minders to adopt against his will – ‘Yes, we can’. They were supposed to thunder ‘Yes, we can!’ back at him, but they just wouldn’t join in. No wonder. Yes we can what exactly? Go home and keep a close eye on the tax rate, is my advice. He’d have been better off bursting into ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony’ which contains roughly the same message and might have attracted some valuable commercial sponsorship.God, I wish I could snark like that.
(H/T to Kevin at The Smallest Minority.)
Today In History: Hail, Columbia!
On this date in 1981,the shuttle Columbia launched from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center for the second time.
STS-2 was the first time ever that a manned spacecraft was reused for a second flight.
STS-2 was the first time ever that a manned spacecraft was reused for a second flight.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Perfect training weather.
37 degrees and raining is the perfect weather to be slamming rounds downrange out in the woods, making pepper poppers sound like Chinese opera. (Ting! Tang! TingTing! TangTang! Ting! TangTangTang!)
Note to self: Gloves would have been nice. Thicker socks, too.
On the nature hike prior to shooting, we saw a whitetail big enough to wear a saddle. As he sprinted off through the bean fields, I thought I was looking at a horse at first.
Awesome day.
Note to self: Gloves would have been nice. Thicker socks, too.
On the nature hike prior to shooting, we saw a whitetail big enough to wear a saddle. As he sprinted off through the bean fields, I thought I was looking at a horse at first.
Awesome day.
Today In History: Great Blue Norther.
On this date in 1911, a record cold snap hit the Midwest, causing many localities to experience record low temperatures in the evening after recording record highs that morning. Springfield, Missouri had seen a humid morning with unseasonably balmy 80 degree temps (must have been all those Stanley Steamer SUV's) but as the cold front rolled through, the temperature dropped a pavement-cracking 67 degrees by midnight to a record low of 13F.
Monday, November 10, 2008
"I can't reach the mag release without shifting my grip."
Well, neither can Dave Sevigny, and it doesn't seem to be slowing him down.
Quit whining and train. ;)
Quit whining and train. ;)
The good thing about the Four Rules...
...is that you have to break a couple of 'em at once to put a hole in anything important. And, yes, manually de-cocking a single-action weapon is a Rule Three violation.
Sometimes people violate the Rules quite on purpose. Technically, every time I engage in dry-fire practice, I'm committing a Rule One violation, so I definitely avoid committing any Rule Two or Three violations at the same time. Carrying in a horizontal shoulder holster or a pocket holster is a Rule Two violation.
Violate the Four Rules at your peril. You'll notice Unc was careful to observe all the other Rules, and is therefore no worse for wear, save for ringing eardrums and a scuff to the pride. (Based on my personal experiences with other experienced shooters and unexpected loud noises, he's going to be a regular safety Nazi for a bit, too. This is not a bad thing at all...)
UPDATE: Other, very valid and educated, points are made here in the comments section.
Sometimes people violate the Rules quite on purpose. Technically, every time I engage in dry-fire practice, I'm committing a Rule One violation, so I definitely avoid committing any Rule Two or Three violations at the same time. Carrying in a horizontal shoulder holster or a pocket holster is a Rule Two violation.
Violate the Four Rules at your peril. You'll notice Unc was careful to observe all the other Rules, and is therefore no worse for wear, save for ringing eardrums and a scuff to the pride. (Based on my personal experiences with other experienced shooters and unexpected loud noises, he's going to be a regular safety Nazi for a bit, too. This is not a bad thing at all...)
UPDATE: Other, very valid and educated, points are made here in the comments section.
Attention, Hoosier shooters:
The people that would like to legislate away your gun rights would prefer it if you did not join the Indiana State Rifle and Pistol Association.
Are you going to make them happy? Didn't think so...
Are you going to make them happy? Didn't think so...
Ninja combat powers, activate!
So, I was reading the latest newsstand special from Guns & Ammo on personal defense (it's okay, I washed my hands afterwards) and, in amongst the "Semiauto vs. Revolver: Part MCMLXVII!" and "Wonderbullet of the Month!" articles was a piece by Chuck Taylor on how competition shooting will get you killed. Heck, even thinking about attending an IPSC event could get you grazed, and shooting an NRA Bullseye match is guaranteed to cause a mugging.
While mercifully free of 20-year-old pics of a square-jawed, sideburned Chuck staring steely-eyed into the middle distance, the article was long on telling you that Chuck was a former world-class IPSC shooter, IPSC sucks, and... well, that was pretty much the long and the short of it, although big photos and good-but-generic tips such as "seek training (preferably with me)," "watch your front sight," and "choose your holster with care" did manage to pad out the article to ten pages.
"Competition," asserts a certain subset of the handgun world with chest-thumping intensity, "is not combat!"
Well, thank you for tipping me off to that fact, Enrico Fermi. Here I thought all along that I was training myself for that grim and inevitable mugging by five bowling pins in a sunny, grassy alley some pleasant weekend morn. Glowering at me from their table in plastic-coated malice, they'll stand in a straight line and... well, do whatever it is that criminally-minded bowling pins do, I guess.
Look, I understand what Chuck is trying to say here: IPSC (and even IDPA) are not combat. They are not training. What they are, however, is shooting practice of a kind that you will not get at your local indoor range. Most people will never be able to shoot under time pressure, or from the leather, or on the move, without engaging in some sort of competition. Also, the fundamentals of actually hitting the target don't change whether it's an attacker or an A-zone. You may not be learning any tactics, but you'll sure learn a lot about shooting fast and accurately under pressure.
What most cheeses me off about these articles, however, and where I think trainers like Chuck Taylor are in error by writing them, is that they encourage a certain mindset in the armchair pistol enthusiast, the tactical wannabe who reads internet forums and gun magazines, sprays fifty rounds at a target once a month, and never gets into competition or attends any good formal training. You know the type: You'll be standing around the gun store or shooting club with friends when Marty Mallninja walks up...
It's doubly funny when Joe is not only a solid club-level IPSC shooter, former NCO in the 75th Regiment, and multiple Thunder Ranch and Gunsite attendee, and you know for a fact that Marty can't hit a barn from the inside with the door closed 'cause you've seen him blazing away on the range without much danger to his B-27.
But competition would "blunt his skills". Right.
Now if you try to tell him otherwise, he's got Chuck Taylor to back him up right there in black and white. Thanks Chuck. The guy who's gonna jump Marty Mallninja tonight thanks you, too.
While mercifully free of 20-year-old pics of a square-jawed, sideburned Chuck staring steely-eyed into the middle distance, the article was long on telling you that Chuck was a former world-class IPSC shooter, IPSC sucks, and... well, that was pretty much the long and the short of it, although big photos and good-but-generic tips such as "seek training (preferably with me)," "watch your front sight," and "choose your holster with care" did manage to pad out the article to ten pages.
"Competition," asserts a certain subset of the handgun world with chest-thumping intensity, "is not combat!"
Well, thank you for tipping me off to that fact, Enrico Fermi. Here I thought all along that I was training myself for that grim and inevitable mugging by five bowling pins in a sunny, grassy alley some pleasant weekend morn. Glowering at me from their table in plastic-coated malice, they'll stand in a straight line and... well, do whatever it is that criminally-minded bowling pins do, I guess.
Look, I understand what Chuck is trying to say here: IPSC (and even IDPA) are not combat. They are not training. What they are, however, is shooting practice of a kind that you will not get at your local indoor range. Most people will never be able to shoot under time pressure, or from the leather, or on the move, without engaging in some sort of competition. Also, the fundamentals of actually hitting the target don't change whether it's an attacker or an A-zone. You may not be learning any tactics, but you'll sure learn a lot about shooting fast and accurately under pressure.
What most cheeses me off about these articles, however, and where I think trainers like Chuck Taylor are in error by writing them, is that they encourage a certain mindset in the armchair pistol enthusiast, the tactical wannabe who reads internet forums and gun magazines, sprays fifty rounds at a target once a month, and never gets into competition or attends any good formal training. You know the type: You'll be standing around the gun store or shooting club with friends when Marty Mallninja walks up...
Joe Blow: "Hey, Marty! We were just going to go shoot some steel; falling plates for a dollar a rack. Wanna come?"
Marty Mallninja: "No way! That stupid competition stuff just blunts your skills! Sensei Klikklikbhang says so."
Joe Blow: "Uh, we're not going to be blunting any skills, just shooting some falling plates for fun and side bets."
It's doubly funny when Joe is not only a solid club-level IPSC shooter, former NCO in the 75th Regiment, and multiple Thunder Ranch and Gunsite attendee, and you know for a fact that Marty can't hit a barn from the inside with the door closed 'cause you've seen him blazing away on the range without much danger to his B-27.
But competition would "blunt his skills". Right.
Now if you try to tell him otherwise, he's got Chuck Taylor to back him up right there in black and white. Thanks Chuck. The guy who's gonna jump Marty Mallninja tonight thanks you, too.
Today In History: The gales of November came early.
On this day in 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald went down with all hands in a storm on Lake Superior.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Sign of the times...
One local Ford dealership is advertising a "Buy a 2008 F-250 Super Duty, get a new F-150 free!" sale.
I'm thinking that if I ever wanted to experience the joys of owning a full-size pickup or SUV, now's the time to tool used car lots dangling the Bimmer as trade bait...
I'm thinking that if I ever wanted to experience the joys of owning a full-size pickup or SUV, now's the time to tool used car lots dangling the Bimmer as trade bait...
Ennui.
I usually feel like 60% of the DSM-IV could be re-written as "Malingering", with 35% characterized as "Weak" and the remaining 5% as "Genuinely Bonkers".
While I generally think the cure for "Seasonal Affective Disorder" is a nice frosty glass of Get The Hell Over It, I can't deny that this last week since the time change, with daylight disappearing at some early heathen Yankee hour and the sky a cheerless shade of gray or sporting a lowering, watery sun casting long shadows by three P.M., has sucked the creative chi right out of me. Bleh. At least cheery Christmas lights will be going up before too long.
While I generally think the cure for "Seasonal Affective Disorder" is a nice frosty glass of Get The Hell Over It, I can't deny that this last week since the time change, with daylight disappearing at some early heathen Yankee hour and the sky a cheerless shade of gray or sporting a lowering, watery sun casting long shadows by three P.M., has sucked the creative chi right out of me. Bleh. At least cheery Christmas lights will be going up before too long.
The 100.
A contentious theory I've often heard advanced is that if you told the police in any major metropolis "One hundred people. You know who they are. Go round them up," and they actually went out and got The Usual Suspects off the street at the same time, that crime in the burg in question would virtually dry up overnight, and stay dried up until those evolutionary niches could be re-filled by migration or reproduction.
You know the hundred people of whom I speak, too: Records that wear out the "pg dn" key on the courtroom computer while being scrolled through. On a first name basis with the local Five-Oh by the time you're sixteen. The cops not only know who you are, but have a rough idea of where to find you at any given time, like when they need to ask questions about the latest convenience store stickup.
Is this just one of the unsolvable perils of modern society? Any comments or thoughts by my readers in Law Enforcement?
EDIT: Since this has already been misconstrued as me saying "Screw the Constitution, let's go round us up some miscreants! Yee-haw!" 'cause that would be so in character for me... (this is me, rolling my eyes,) allow me to clarify that what I'm wondering about is the theory that in any given area, 90% of the bad stuff that happens can be traced back, either directly or indirectly, to a shockingly small number of people. I know from having lived in a small rural town that you'd hear deputies mumble that if the So-and-so family (and that one no-good layabout over on Rocky Creek) would just pack their whole clan up and move to the next county, then Smallville would become a dull place of a Friday night.
You know the hundred people of whom I speak, too: Records that wear out the "pg dn" key on the courtroom computer while being scrolled through. On a first name basis with the local Five-Oh by the time you're sixteen. The cops not only know who you are, but have a rough idea of where to find you at any given time, like when they need to ask questions about the latest convenience store stickup.
Is this just one of the unsolvable perils of modern society? Any comments or thoughts by my readers in Law Enforcement?
EDIT: Since this has already been misconstrued as me saying "Screw the Constitution, let's go round us up some miscreants! Yee-haw!" 'cause that would be so in character for me... (this is me, rolling my eyes,) allow me to clarify that what I'm wondering about is the theory that in any given area, 90% of the bad stuff that happens can be traced back, either directly or indirectly, to a shockingly small number of people. I know from having lived in a small rural town that you'd hear deputies mumble that if the So-and-so family (and that one no-good layabout over on Rocky Creek) would just pack their whole clan up and move to the next county, then Smallville would become a dull place of a Friday night.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
The list just gets longer...
The longer you collect old guns, the longer the list of stuff you need gets...
1) An extractor and a grip screw for a Frommer Stop.
2) A Radom recoil assembly.
3) A takedown plunger for a Colt 1902.
4) A thumb safety for a Colt 1908 Vest Pocket.
5) Un-bubba'ed stocks for a Ross Mk.II and a Mannlicher-Berthier M.1907/15.
6) A magazine spring and follower for a Siamese M.1903.
Wanna have fun? Ask the gun parts guy at the local Fun Show for any of the above. You'll probably get a "Nope," on the Colt parts and maybe the Radom bit, too. The other stuff just gets you a blank stare.
1) An extractor and a grip screw for a Frommer Stop.
2) A Radom recoil assembly.
3) A takedown plunger for a Colt 1902.
4) A thumb safety for a Colt 1908 Vest Pocket.
5) Un-bubba'ed stocks for a Ross Mk.II and a Mannlicher-Berthier M.1907/15.
6) A magazine spring and follower for a Siamese M.1903.
Wanna have fun? Ask the gun parts guy at the local Fun Show for any of the above. You'll probably get a "Nope," on the Colt parts and maybe the Radom bit, too. The other stuff just gets you a blank stare.
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