By gone days of youth

Carteach0's recent blog post about his first BB Gun brought back a whole flood of memories.
As a kid I had the seemingly obligatory Red Rider type BB Gun, made famous in "A Christmas Story" and various other models that you could pump several times to increase the power.

I remember living on the Farm in Western Pennsylvania (near the home of Ground Hog day, Punxsutawney) part of the farm had been strip mined while we lived there and had an AWESOME area where there were huge piles of rock and shale before they restored the landscape along with a largish fresh rain water pond. This are provided endless hours of fun using little green army men and small pieces of shale to construct bunkers and forts for the little green guys, which I would then demolish from several yards away with the BB Gun sending in round after round of make believe artillery fire. :) Another favorite BB wasting pastime was Wasp hunting. After large thunderstorms we had huge puddles laying around on various parts of the farm with surrounding mud flats, mud wasps would proliferate on these shoals and gather mud or whatever it is they do, and I would pick them off. I would thereby eliminate a nuisance from the farm and enjoy the imaginary war theme I would construct (yeah I was a lonely kid out in the boonies on the farm) the BB's would make these beautiful craters and the sheer enjoyment cannot be explained to an adult, you just had to be a kid at the time to experience it.

WoooHoooo Another Gun show

Jeff, one of the instructors at our range class yesterday also operates a Gun Store in Baltimore (Parkville) and while I was up there today getting cleaning supplies he told me the Gun Show I attended is not the one I thought it was despite the naming similarities. The show that got kicked out of my current county has a new name and is happening this coming weekend in Timonium. This show is set to have well over 500 tables as opposed to the 20 something at the other one.

Sooooooo My shopping list is:
Environment Resistant Ammo Cans
Snap Caps for .22, 9mm, and .38, .308 and possibly .223
Ammo for the 9mm and .22 and an initial stock of .223

Jeff, has me interested in two possible rifles which I am going to wait till after the new year to decide on. A Bushmaster M4 and a Sig M4. Both are outfitted with the rail systems and stocks I want but the Sig is a special deal he runs and comes with a Hogue (sp) optical site for $1390

I want to time my purchase so that I can take the class these same guys teach on rifles (we get a discount on the class as we have taken the other class with them) I need to learn about the AR15 style weapons. All my Military training and work was done with M14's.

Range Report

Well we had a 10 hour class and by the time we were ready to put some lead down range the skys had cleared and the rain had stopped. There were three instructors, the ""Gunny" is a nationally ranked shooter and knows his stuff, as did the Sheriff, Jeff and The former Russian "Gene" all of them very very good with their weapons. The class was somewhat basic overall, but perfect for C.

I learned what my problem has been with my Sig, three very simple things.
1. I now use an Overlap grip instead of a pedestal grip
2. my overall body stance was not optimal
3. The indoor range I normally shoot at is too dimly lit. I could really see so much better outside, and by see, I mean how the sites line up.

I fired off 60 rounds very quickly and hit center mass with every shot, the groupings were not too bad, but need work and at least I'm getting them much closer to where I am looking. Over all I used up about 150 rounds with nothing off the center mass. (9" pie plate) Not great shooting but good enough for home defense.

C. using the Huntsman had to overcome an initial fear and tension about the weapon, then had to get used to the guy next to her shooting. Once she stopped shaking and jumping out of her skin she settled down and did very well, her last 30 rounds were center mass. When she gets more comfy with the pistol and doesnt take so long between raising the weapon and firing she will do great. (One funny bit, on preparing for her first shot, she racked the slide back and the mag fell out of the gun. Totally hilarious and totally my fault, I didn't push the latch forward far enough when I was showing her how to secure the mag in the pistol)

We had a good time and C was showing interest in taking the rifle course to learn about the M4 and AR15 style weapons, We got our certificates AND our first "rockers".

Range day tomorrow.

Heading out to take our NRA course and state certs for handguns tomorrow. Also getting some shooting instruction from a real pro. Former Marine Gunnery Sergeant and a state champion shooter. Maybe I'll be able to hit the broad side of a barn with my Sig after he makes me give him 20 :)

Will be my first time out shooting with C and I was surprised when she wanted to go along too.
Really looking forward to this.

I'll be shooting this P226 Sig 9mm















While C will be shooting this Colt Huntsman .22.

The Reveal

Some more vanity from me.
Picture is 7 years old and I am now heavier and much much much greyer.
This is back when I worked in an office. As you can see we were a casual dress
code environment. I am a jeans and sweatshirt kind of guy and don't like the
pretentious attitudes of the people that I have worked with who maintain that
in order to be "Professional" you have to wear a monkey suit and a noose...I mean tie.

I can pull off the suit look if I want to, the problem is, I just so rarely want to.
Need to find a newer picture that doesn't make me look as dorky as the ones I already have.

I have to write more about this

I had to bring this up because the press is really pushing disinformation on what really is going on and why. This whole Subprime thing started on Bill Clinton's watch and was directly caused by Congress. Congress letting themselves be directed by those of socialist bent and the race baiters. The be all and end all of this market collapse is that it is directly due to congress forcing unsound policy and regulation, in their effort to gain votes with blocks of voters. They went out and messed with the market that they apparently know nothing about. What I want to say to Congress is "listen you jerks, until you manage to balance your own budget and live within your means, stay the hell away from the economy."

Stan Leibowitz does a good job:

How did America wind up in its worst financial crisis in decades? Sen. Barack Obama explained it this way last week: “When sub-prime-mortgage lending took a reckless and unsustainable turn, a patchwork of regulators systematically and deliberately eliminated the regulations protecting the American people.”

That’s exactly backward. Mortgage lending took that “reckless and unsustainable turn” because of regulation - regulation driven by liberals and progressives, not free-market “deregulators.”

…The mortgage market was humming along just fine when, in the late 1980s, progressives decided that it needed to be “fixed.” Their complaint: Some ethnic groups got approved for mortgages at lower rates than others.

In reality, mortgage lenders were simply being prudent - taking care to provide mortgages to those who could best afford to make the payments.

The shift began in 1989, when Congress amended the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to force banks to collect racial data on mortgage applicants. By 1991, critics were using that data to paint lenders as racist by showing that minority applicants were approved at far lower rates. Banks were “Shamed By Publicity,” as one 1993 New York Times headline put it.

…[In 1993] the Boston Fed announced new requirements for banks - rules that have now turned out to be monumentally catastrophic: Adopt “relaxed lending standards” or risk being labeled as racists, and face serious penalties under the federal Community Reinvestment Act.

Gone (as “arbitrary” and “outdated”) were traditional lending requirements such as requiring a down payment or limiting mortgage payments to 28 percent of income. (Of course, the loosened lending standards weren’t limited to poor and minority applicants - that would be discriminatory.)

…Time after time, Fannie and Freddie trumped criticism by pointing to how they were helping broaden homeownership. Because of the subject’s racial overtones, they beat back calls for reform even after financial irregularities were found.

The Whole article can be found here

A pity that this wasn't about the Lehman guys

Or the WorldCom and Enron guys. The Lehman execs are going to receive a 2.5 BILLION dollar bonus/payout that is protected by the Bankruptcy courts in the Buyout of that firm. Where the hell is the accountability? 2.5 BILLION for abject failure? jesus. Words fail me when it comes to these top level execs, and how they can in good conscience live with themselves after this kind of disgrace. They have to be completely bereft of any humanity or dignity,

Anyway read the whole thing and just tell me you don't kinda sorta wish it were about some people closer to home.

Corporate India is in shock after a mob of sacked workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who had dismissed them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi.

Lalit Kishore Choudhary, 47, the head of the Indian operations of Graziano Transmissioni, an Italian-headquartered manufacturer of car parts, died of severe head wounds on Monday afternoon after being attacked by scores of laid-off employees, police said.

The incident, in Greater Noida, just outside the Indian capital, followed a long-running dispute between the factory's management and workers who had demanded better pay and permanent contracts.

Previous post.

Was my first attempt to use Scribefire a plugin for Firefox 3. Mixed results there, will have to further refine.

Cool Tech, Japan leading the way with serious effort

Japan hopes to turn sci-fi into reality with elevator to the stars

Leo Lewis in Tokyo

From cyborg housemaids and waterpowered cars to dog translators and rocket
boots, Japanese boffins have racked up plenty of near-misses in the quest to
turn science fiction into reality.

Now the finest scientific minds of Japan are devoting themselves to cracking
the greatest sci-fi vision of all: the space elevator. Man has so far
conquered space by painfully and inefficiently blasting himself out of the
atmosphere but the 21st century should bring a more leisurely ride to the
final frontier.

For chemists, physicists, material scientists, astronauts and dreamers across
the globe, the space elevator represents the most tantalising of concepts:
cables stronger and lighter than any fibre yet woven, tethered to the ground
and disappearing beyond the atmosphere to a satellite docking station in
geosynchronous orbit above Earth.

There are huge engineering and materials breakthroughs necessary for this project to succeed, but the first nation to actually have one of these will more than recoup the costs I think. Much like the Apollo program spun off many technologies that made hundreds of billions in profit possible, so to this project could really kick start a new world.

I know many people who think "All that space stuff is a waste of money, we should help people here at home first" but they for some reason don't see how that is such a socialist and backward thinking idea. Moving out into the solar system will bring us wealth and resources beyond measure if we ever manage to do it.

What a week

Changing Jobs and the current boss is trying to squeeze every last drop out of me before I go.

I hope everyone enjoyed International Speak Like a Pirate day, I found out about it too late.
But I did learn my Pirate Name be "Krang Redheart".

Movie Review: Clone Wars, Babylon AD

Well after this weekends major bummer with the Gun Show I was in a funk. I didn't do anything constructive at all the last two days. What I did yesterday was see two movies back to back.

While I am not a total Star Wars groupie, the trailer for this animated movie was interesting enough to make me want to watch. It was entertaining and fairly well acted and proved to be a decent diversion for something like 98 minutes. So if your looking to kill an hour and a half, this is worth a single $8 ticket.

Babylon A.D. was what you should expect an action flick starring Vin Diesel. A fun romp with lots of action, and explosions. The end sort of left me mystified, one of the main characters dies for no apparent reason and I just did not get whatever was being hinted at in the last scene. I suppose there is some printed source that would have given me some idea of what is going on.
I'll have to look it up. All in all, it was worth the $8 matinee fee.

Totally Disgusted

The gun show wasn't worth the 40 mile drive to get there. About 2 dozen tables, 4 of them empty, 4 knife vendors 6 were WW II junk tables. No really it was junk, bits and pieces of Uniforms, patches and rank insignia along with some photographs. Another 4 tables were Airsoft product tables and Air rifles. The 5 tables were battered antique tables with waaaay over priced product. I mean these examples were roughly used along with a few newer hunting rifles and shotguns, basically nothing of any interest to me. The last table had a small selection of modern handguns nothing exciting and 3 DPS AR15's (base model no mods) for roughly double the normal asking price, $1850 was the cheapest. I am so disapointed.

Mr. Obama the Socialist

Every time I hear him speak, he has something to say about: "Economic Justice"

This is apparently palatable code for robbing the rich and giving to the poor or something like that. I just cannot fathom how a supposedly educated intelligent man can think of our economy as a zero sum game, where for the poor to be better off you have to take things away from the middle and upper economic classes. Away from the people who are working their asses off and succeeding in our capitalism based society. He sits there in comfort undreamed of by most of the non-democratic world and he speaks as if he wants to ruin the system that made not only his success possible but the success of countless small business owners and middle class workers.

Does he want to tear down all successful people to reward those who have proven incapable of succeeding in the most favorable environment for individual success ever conceived? Apparently.

His other plans include:

• Universal, health care.
• Free college tuition.
• Free child care and universal preschool. (no need for parents then)
• Universal national service (Some kind of civilian Draft?)
• Universal 401(k)s meaning that tax money was taken to match the input of the contributor
• Free job training for everyone.
• Wage insurance to make sure no one ever has to work for less no matter how outdated their skills or saturated the market.
• More subsidized public housing. (Living here I see how successful that program is....hint: this is sarcasm)
• A larger earned income tax credit for working poor. (ie taking one persons tax money and just giving it to someone else)

I just do not see how he can believe this fairy tale society could work, all I see is ruining any chance for anyone to succeed on their own.

In memory of those we lost

I have no words for the grief and horror I felt that day 7 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday and I still feel the impact.

I got the Job.

Completely new type of job for me starting on the 22nd. I am looking forward to something new and a little ... nervous I guess is the word about something completely new. I am moving out of a support and engineering type role and into a testing and documenting role. I will need to do some serious improving to my writing skill. I had planned on taking a technical writing course this semester, but decided to take a break between the AS and BS phase of my formal education. I did find out that I have the equivalent of a BS EE from my Navy career and now have an AS in Technology Studies and will work towards a BS in Information Systems Management.

I guess if I want to make any more significant increases to my income, I will have to consider at some point moving into management, however I may not do that before I retire at my planned retirement age of 56, of course when I say retirement it is a relative term, I'll definitely want to switch to a lower stress, more fun but probably a less lucrative job to keep myself occupied.

Sarah Palin: The more I learn the more I like

Have to admit that I saw this on Kim Du Toit's Blog before I read it myself. (See my links to the left)

Going to have to start reading more of my American News from the UK it looks like.
Nice to see SOMEONE doing some investigative journalism without having a smear campaign in mind:

From Here

In short, far from being a small-town mayor concerned with little more than traffic signs, she has been a major player in state politics for a decade, one who formulated an ambitious agenda and deftly implemented it against great odds.

Her sudden elevation to the vice-presidential slot on the Republican ticket shocked no one more than her enemies in Alaska, who have broken out into a cold sweat at the thought of Palin in Washington, guiding the Justice Department's anti-corruption teams through the labyrinths of Alaska's old-boy network.

It is no surprise that many of the charges laid against her have come from Alaska, as her enemies become more and more desperate to bring her down. John McCain was familiar with this track record and it is no doubt the principal reason that he chose her.

Focusing on the exotic trappings of Alaskan culture may make Palin seem a quaint and inexplicable choice. But understanding the real background of her steady rise in politics suggests that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are underestimating her badly. In this, they join two former Alaskan governors, a large number of cronies, and a trail of enemies extending back over a decade.

James Bennett is the author of 'The Anglosphere Challenge'

7 Days and counting

Till the gun show in Maryland. I'm really looking forward to it and the possibilities of finding a decent deal on an M4 style rifle. Originally I wanted the .308 version of the rifle, but decided that I should get the 5.56 instead. Partly because of cost of original purchase and of Ammo. Later I'll see about modding and there is also Beowulf which has to be factored in. .50 cal Beowulf would be very fun to shoot, but at a buck a bullet rather expensive I think.

Democrats turning out to be complete sleaze.

Oh freakin unbelievable. The asshats are releasing her personal info, phone numbers, home addresses, SSN #'s and ragging on her daughter. Can you smell the hypocrisy? can you smell the smug assholes just tossing away any shred of fairness or objectivity in the political arena?

The major News papers and George Soros are just breaking their own rules to smear a decent woman. Did anyone go after Chelsey Clinton? Is anyone out there harassing Obama's daughters?
Oh hey wait, Doesn't Obama's VP choice have a Lobbyist son who benefits directly from his fathers connections in Congress? Is anyone splashing that on the headlines?

I am so very sick of the main stream media and the democratic party and the looney liberal left.
Billionaire Liberal Democrats (yeah I know redundancy there) are funding massive programs to turn this country into a socialist slum to prevent anyone from profiting from hard work and dilligence...and yet all we hear about is those darn "Rich Republicans".

It seems like every where I turn I am being bombarded by hypocritical attack campaigns waged by front groups who are investing billions to basically tell us, that if we don't elect Obama we are racist. Hell I can't even complain because should I complain, I am labeled "A bitter white guy clinging to my guns and my religion". I wish I could use the language that Rachel Lukas does, but it isn't my style...still this crap just makes one want to scream. I am expecting the dems to release Palin's OB/GYN records next...along with accounts from her highschool sweety about what they did while parked in a secluded spot.

Oh lord help me survive the next 2+ months.

Oh Mama! it's Beowulf.

No not the cheesy movie with Angelina Jolie. No this is a .50 Cal rifle based on the M4/AR15 style rifle. The great thing about this is that a standard M4 5.56 can be converted to Beowulf by replacing the Upper Receiver of the M4, It takes less than 5 minutes.


The Beowulf is made by Alexander Arms. The .50 round is intended for short range maximum stopping power. Short range being 200 yards or less, at which point the massive flat nosed round drops below supersonic speeds. (Alexander Arms also makes the versatile 6.5 Grendel rifle also built on the AR/M4 frame). I am still getting info on this particular weapon, but it sure makes me want to get an M4 so that I can convert as needed. I will also be looking for more images.

Colt Huntsman

This is my favorite gun. At least of the ones I own. My dad has a very similar looking Colt Woodsman which I grew up shooting. So when I had the chance to buy the Huntsman a few decades ago, I jumped on it and have loved shooting it ever since. I am most accurate shooting this and my Smith 686, I can hit what Im looking at, unlike my Sig P226 and Ruger Mk I. I really need to see what I am doing wrong with the Sig. I should not be so badly off my aim.


.22 caliber smooth as silk action, I just love this gun. It has a serial number of 091048S which I believe indicates that it was manufactured between January and April of 1976. I really should learn to care better for the blued steel, aside from keeping it lubed and cleaning the best I can. I still have to find a good set of instructions on how to field strip this gun to clean the slide and inner mechanisms. What little I have found is confusing and not very well detailed or diagrammed.