To The Pundits

This one is pointed at the pundits. You self-anointed phonies.

In the Republican primary race you have one and all rejected Fred Thompson in favor of the jerk you placed your bet on early in the race. Whether that jerk is McCain, Romney or Giuliani you are one and all rejecting Fred Thompson as the Republican Candidate.

I know why. You decided to sign on with a candidate early in hopes of favor down the road.

Do any of your recall how it is that Fred decided to run? It was because of the actual VOTERS (You do remember us, don't you?) sending him money and begging him to get involved. We saw the same crop of jerks you guys did and we rejected each of them. The only genuine conservatives were considered also-rans from the start.

We didn't want your front runners. We wanted someone who we felt had the guts and the good sense that Fred Thompson displays. Not your polished, projected, fake candidates.

Now that REAL people have chosen why must we listen to YOU, the self-righteous prats, in being told that our choice isn't valid?

In the Preamble to the Constitution does it read "We the pundits" or We the people"?

It's OUR nation, not yours. Fred is OUR choice and you should listen to what WE want.

The Stupidity Has Landed

Some very slick commercials have cropped up on one of the few TV channels I deem worthy of turning on. The History Channel.

This bit of stupidity in a slick wrapper is trolling for followers.

I went to that website. I searched their list of 30 (count 'em, 30) Human Rights.

It prattles on and on about how humans have the right be free and unmolested, but not one mention anywhere of a right to self defense. The Right that the UN doesn't consider right.

Nowhere on the website does it say how a human anywhere on the planet can get an enforcement of all these nice warm and fuzzy rights.

How is the right to not be oppressed working out in Darfur? Freedom from unreasonable imprisonment working out okay in China?

Without the recognition (not granting, recognizing) the absolute most basic human right the rest is NOTHING!

If a people is not free to redress their own grievances by force of arms they HAVE NO RIGHTS!

Any politician who doesn't admit that fact is out to enslave you and yours. He is out to MURDER AND RAPE YOU! Not necessarily in that order. It is the lesson of history that is writ large and bold in every language ever used on the planet.

If you don't fight back you are a slave. You will die painfully and slowly. You will see your children murdered and your family disgraced.

Without the most basic Human Right there are no others.

October IDPA Epilogue - Scores

My match score was 177.82 this time around. Not fast, no, not by a long shot.

But this time my overall accuracy earned me a "top ten" placement in figuring accuracy.

Yes, way down at number 8, but last month I didn't even place and the number of competitors was smaller.

IDPA scoring is slanted toward accuracy at the expense of speed. Speed counts, but missing will cost you faster than you can shoot.

"You can't miss fast enough to win." I kept this in mind this time around. I'm not fast in gun handling or on the draw. To score better I need to stop missing and dropping points that I'm good enough to get.

IDPA Vickers count figures your score into seconds, penalizing you for every point you drop. Missing the target will set you back on time.

I"m firing a nearly stock pistol with factory reloads, not soft-shooting special loads.

I'm pretty happy with my score this time. I definitely improved since last month. I hope to keep on improving when I can compete again, hopefully in Decemer or a different weekend in November.

I'm even wondering about switching to the 21 SF.

October IDPA E

Nothing like shooting at a target where you not only can't miss, but you have a smaller area to hit.
No reloads needed, but you could do it if you wanted. Vickers count.

You are a volunteer at a church carnival when 6 baddies enter wearing sloppy, home-made body armor. If you hit them in the head or center of the chest you stop them. One bullet needed in each target, tactical priority. (Nearest to furthest).

I think I missed one but maybe not. I'll know better when the scores are e-mailed. A lot of folks were having trouble seeing if they hit at the furthest targets. They weren't willing to keep shooting after the 6. You figure your bets, though. If you don't know you hit then you can gamble on either having made it vs. taking more time and making sure you plugged the last guys.

October IDPA D

This one sort of doesn't make sense. If you aren't an Only One you aren't supposed to conceal carry into a bar in Texas.

You start seated in this one, too, but here you have to draw while seated and not sweep yourself. Target 1 has to be shot while your butt is still on the bar stool. Then you take out his two buddies who were crouching behind the bar.

This particular part proves differently difficult for different shooters. From my standing angle nearly all of the target is visible. I'm the tallest person shooting there. One of the other guys, though, has less than a foot of my height. This is not going to be as easy for him. Two shots in the T1-T3. That puts you 6 down. Revolvers have to reload, Semi-autos have at most 5 left.

Once you have taken out the boys at the bar you have to engage three more baddies at distance while kneeling behind the bar's far edge for cover.


You have to put 3 each into the three distant targets so you may have 5 and need to pump out 9. Yes, Virginia, there will be a reload.

My first time I often performed a "reload with retention" even when I could have just dropped and slapped. IDPA gives a procedural penalty for dropping a magazine with rounds in it or for dropping a magazine while there is a round in the gun. You have to do a reload with retention. If you aren't at slide like you likely will be penalized if you don't retain.

This time I remembered to be judicious. If I was at slide lock the magazine was hitting the dirt. I don't know how but I'm managed to stop slapping my palm, though one reload was too soft. It was on the National standards stage and I was getting tired.

No blood blisters and fewer magazines failing to seat. I'm feeling better about my gun handling.

I shot this stage pretty well as far as accuracy goes. Even though I never practice firing from kneeling and almost never from cover this doesn't seem too bad to me.

I remember when I had the intermediate training in Colorado and had to crouch behind barrels and fire. This is just more of the same.

I feel I do need to work more on non-dominant hand shooting and still work on gun handling skills. I can pick up more speed on magazine swaps and the draw while not sacrificing accuracy downrange.

October IDPA C

This one was the most complicated COF this month.

Home invasion time. You pull your van into the garage and some thugs try to put the move on you.

Tough luck, boys. This ain't Connecticut!




The van in this case is a donation but so far they still don't seem to have many bullet holes in it and are trying to keep it that way. It still runs.

You start with your weapon in your dominant hand and take on T1 through the rolled down passenger window. Since you only see him from about the nipple line up it's not a big target but close. Two rounds with the dominant hand and then out of the van and taking on T2 through the rolled down door window of the driver side. You can use two hands. I'm pretty sure I didn't bother. Two rounds from that close?

Backing up you have to engage two more targets as they appear, two each. Revolver has to reload before engaging number 4.

Keep backing up and T5 takes two from you.

You have finally backed up enough to get to the end of the stage. Three more baddies, two flanking a hostage.

This was the first COF that I shot and don't remember my score. I did pull a procedural, though. I hadn't neutralized a target before backing up and so that will cost me.

A lesson better learned on the one-way range than on the two-way range.

October IDPA B

The Cirillo Drill.

This drill is challenging. You have two targets half-shielded behind a no-shoot and the third is partially concealed by hard cover.

You don't have to do head shots, but they are actually somewhat 'safe' bets in order to finish this. Each target is supposed to catch two bullets.

Only six hits are needed so revolvers don't face a disadvantage from higher capacity semi-autos. Vickers count so those semi-autos can fire more, if they want.

The squad I was on did this one last and I saw a lot of misses from people who normally don't miss. There was even a Constable competing whose 1911 locked up from being dry as he fired the sixth shot.

I officially only missed once but one was really close to being a miss. I hadn't fired anything except dry in a month so that was part of it, fatigue was there, too.

Why do I feel this drill to be valid? It forces you to face targets that aren't full body.

I'll say it here, but it applies to all the gun games. These are not realistic depictions of a two way gun fight. IDPA is better at making a competitor adhere to something approaching real tactics than IPSC. But it is still a gun game. I do it because it is FUN.

October IDPA A

This month I remembered to ask for COF sheets to try and illustrate my experiences at IDPA.

While the gun range features only 4 "bays" the GM drew upon his recent experiences at the Nationals to set up 5 Course Of Fire (COF) stages within the 4 spaces. While stages 1 and 2 occupied the same bay they were not shot at the same time. Instead they were shot in sequence.


You have a rather simple shoot with almost no movement required by the shooter.

7 yards non-dominant hand, starting gun at a low ready, safety off. One to the body on each, one to the head on each of the first three targets. Six rounds, Vickers count so you can fire more if you want.

That section of the stage concluded you reload, re-holster and back up to 10 yards. This one starts from the draw, dominant hand only, one to each of the first three targets, then back again and conclude with a head shot at the three. Nine rounds, Vickers count.

After this section you reload and move to the final section which calls for a mandatory tactical reload. You are farther back. Your three targets have a buddy with them. You have to serve all your guests one round each to the body and then do a tactical reload and kneel, then serve dessert to your guests in the body.

Complicated scenarios may look more "fun" but this one was both simple and challenging. I think that for a 'game' it was very interesting.

The gun and holster were the same choices as last time. G 22 and Blackhawk CQC holster.

Daniel Boone would have cried

No wonder he abandoned the area for Missouri.

Kentucky is looking to cash in on a reasonable product that has been of vital importance in treating both acute and chronic pain.

Kentucky officials on Thursday sued the manufacturer of OxyContin, the prescription pain reliever dubbed "hillbilly heroin," because of widespread abuse in Appalachia.

A lawsuit filed by Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo and Pike County
officials demands millions in compensation from drug maker Purdue Pharma.

Unlike the scum lawyers in this scandal I have personal experience with OxyContin. Not as someone who ever took it. As someone who has dispensed these tablets.

It works. It isn't perfect, but it works. That some people abuse it is not reason to hit the manufacturer. They didn't run around saying "Get high on this". They have abided by all the rules and regulations of the FDA and the assorted states.

So why go into the extortion racket in Kentucky?

Unintended Consequences

I finally read this book all the way through. It was my second attempt, the first one ending about mid-way through.

It's not a hard read, once you get used to the author's idiosyncrasies. Were it not for the subject matter, however, I doubt I would have bothered.

To call the book thought provoking would be to shortchange the author.