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.

Texas, By God!

A few weeks ago news of a horrific double murder emerged from the gun un-friendly state of Connecticut. A doctor is assaulted, his wife and daughter raped and then murdered, the home set on fire. If the murders hadn't rammed the cops as they left the scene of the crime they might still be free to commit murder.

Those things happen when the law-abiding are made defenseless. When the potential victims are disarmed.

It's not that way in Texas.

A man posing as a police officer forces his way into a home and terrorizes a San Antonio family. The fake police officer attacked the father inside that house, as children and wife watched.

"He hit me with a crow bar in the face threatening to kill me," said the father, who did not want to his identity revealed because he still fears for his family.

He did reveal all of his stitches and staples from the attack.

The pediatrician in Connecticut was beaten, too. Beaten and left to burn to death. The perps were two men with long histories as burglars. Or at least that's what they had plea bargained down to on their earlier convictions. With prosecutors who won't push on real criminals and judges who won't sentence career criminals to significant sentences these two probably had a worse history than we know.

These two beat the doctor, raped and murdered his wife and daughter and set fire to the house.

But in Texas the story didn't end with a whimper. It ended with a bang.

Scared for his family, the father fought back.

"I wasn't going to lay down and let them do what they wanted in my home," said the father. "Good Lord only what they would have done if I would have cooperated they could have killed all of us."

But they didn't because this father managed to get to his gun and fired several shots scaring all three men out of his home.

"We plan on moving out of the neighborhood," said the father. "I've lived here over 30 years, and it's just not safe.

Connecticut, stop letting the criminals and the liberals force you to live in fear! Nation, rise up! Acclaim your right to self defense and MAKE your voice heard!

All you have to lose is your victimhood.

Proof, as if we needed any.

In a move that has stunned New York, the Bloomberg administration is in discussions to escort the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to ground zero during his visit to New York next week, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said today.

Forget the lying. The law breaking. The complete disregard for any glimmer of truth, justice or honoring of the Constitution.

For Bloomberg to even enter negotiations to take Ahmadinejad to Ground Zero while that weasel-faced turd is sending bombs and men to kill Americans in Iraq completely boggles the mind.

If I'm mayor and Ahmadinejad wanted to visit I'd tell him and his entourage to paint their faces and prepare to die.

There is only one way he belongs at Ground Zero. As a head on a pike.

Anyone in office who disagrees with that needs to take their stuff and get out. France or Canada may want you. I don't.

The Only Ones Stealing Enough

Lee Paige has given the world one gift. The gift of a phrase that besmirches all the self-inflated public servants.

I usually only forward these but I think I'll start posting some here, too.

ROBELINE, La. - This village's only convenience store decided to do something nice for its police officers: give them a free fountain drink or coffee at closing time. But somewhere along the way, investigators say, it got out of control. Now, all three of the village's officers are accused of stealing snacks.

"Over a period of time, it evolved into regular drinks and more," Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's investigator Travis Trammell said. "There's no telling how it got to this point, but the store started experiencing losses and they watch their videotapes and see all of this going on."

Surveillance tapes showed each officer going into the Shop-A-Lott at Lott Oil around closing time and filling plastic bags with dozens of bottled soft drinks, Trammell said. The officers also are reportedly seen eating an assortment of other snacks without paying.

Police Chief Gordon O'Con confirmed that the officers remain on active duty, but said he was advised not to commment about their arrests. There was no answer at the police department Friday when The Associated Press made repeated calls seeking comment from the officers.

What makes this an Only Ones is that these cops are still on duty, still armed. Afforded the means and opportunity to take retribution upon those who dare to call an armed robber an armed robber.

Can someone take a message?

Hello, U.N.? Can you take a message for me? I want to give your racism investigator a bit of a clue.

First up, what sort of wastoid position is that? Racism investigator? What did he find in Sudan? Oh, he didn't investigate there! So what good is he?

Yes, I know he's yet another muslim crying about Islamaphobia.

The United Nations investigator on racism on Friday condemned a rising trend of Islamaphobia, especially in Europe, where he said it was being exploited by some right-wing political parties.

Doudou Diene, U.N. special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, also accused Switzerland's most popular party, the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), of inciting hatred.

Now maybe this "special rapporteur" should maybe have a minder, like the rest of the kids on the short bus. It's clear that he's that sort of "special".

"In the current context, Islamaphobia constitutes the most serious form of religious defamation," Diene said in a speech and report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose 47 member states were holding a debate on religious defamation.

More and more political leaders and influential media and intellectuals were "equating Islam with violence and terrorism," and some were seeking to "silence religious practices by banning the construction of mosques," Diene said.

Hey, special guy. It wasn't the world who linked Islam with violence and terrorism. It was Muslims who made that link and they've been forging that link for the past several decades. When a Buddhist is beheaded in Indonesia it's a Muslim doing the violence. When there is a terrorist attacking London it's a Muslim doing the terrorism.

WE aren't doing that to Islam. YOUR PEOPLE ARE!

Now, I'm sure you folks at the U.N. really don't want to have anything to do with racism. Guess what. There's racism in the United States. I suggest you folks clear out. Don't stay to the end of your lease. Pick up stakes and move. Let's see. Dubai has a big tower of Babel they just built. Surely they need tenants.

Take your Koran kissing on the road, jack and don't come back no more.

IDPA is fun!

I got to the club and participated in the IDPA shoot. If I recall there was a total of 16 people participating, split into two squads. We shot in 4 different bays set up with different courses of fire.

The one that cost the most time to everyone was perhaps one of the more creative. The Gun Show.

You've been a good boy and let the security at the gun show put a cable tie through your pistol barrel. You are bent over a table looking at something when some not-good boys pull out guns and start trouble. Your task is the draw your disabled side arm, remove the cable tie, load, chamber and engage the first three targets, then an accomplice in the middle of the imaginary "room" as you move to cover while avoiding a hit on a no-shoot. This being IDPA you are only allowed 10 rounds.

From cover you can re-load and engage three more bad guys, one who is peeking out from behind hard cover.

This stage took the most time from all the participants. I thought it was very creative.

Another stage involved a van used as a prop. Gone campin'. You are carrying in the woods and were engaged in some target practice. You still have 6 rounds in your arm as you are confronted by three armed adversaries. You put 2 each into the three, one of which is dodging frantically. You move with an empty firearm to the back of your van and grab two magazines. The three bad guys had four friends and you have to engage them, too. Again, one has hard cover.

When I did this one I created something of a stir. The plastic barrels the club uses for "hard cover" aren't all that hard. Usually glancing blows result in a flyer zinging overhead. Nothing I hadn't heard before at shooting berms. If you hear them ducking is pretty pointless. They were gone before your ear registered what that sound was.

Somehow my truncated cone FMJ 180 grain .40 S&W found its way into a barrel instead of just glancing off. Once it got in it didn't get out. It went zooming around INSIDE the barrel for a few seconds. People were looking around, trying to spot the aircraft that seemed to be right on top of us.

The remaining two stages were more straight forward engagements of targets.

The results are in. I was dead last. No suprise. It tells me where I start from. Hopefully I only go up from here!

Excellent...

The destruction of the Democrat's hopes for the White House has begun.

As usual, they are doing it to themselves.

Winfrey holds fundraiser for Obama

The most powerful woman in show business was set to celebrate her favorite candidate at her palatial estate in this coastal enclave south of Santa Barbara. Tickets to the sold-out private event went for $2,300 apiece, keeping them within campaign finance limits. Stevie Wonder was scheduled to perform for the guests, who were expected to include actors Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and Halle Berry. By late afternoon other guests, including actors Linda Evans and Dennis Haysbert and TV director Paris Barclay, had arrived.

This is, in the words of C. Montgomery Burns, is "Excellent!"

Because the only figure on the Democrat side that stands a chance of winning is Hillary any major disintegration and waste of money on the primary fight is going to help ensure a Republican win.

I hope Sen. Obama can see the truth of my words and says "I don't care! Mommy told me I could be a President! I wanna be President!" The longer he holds out expecting to get the DLC nod the deeper the divide between the Democrats and Black Americans.

With the highly paid Black Americans paying court to their candidate (who has nothing in common with them) we have a division between a major voting block which is historically taken for granted by the Democrats.

The DLC will never give Obama the nod. The DNC is just a sock puppet for the DLC. The DLC wants Hillary.

This spells disaster. Without the votes the Democrats always take for granted they won't have a chance in the general election. In fact, without Obama in the race, many Black Americans will probably stay home rather than vote at all, helping to ensure more Republican victories in 2008.

The beauty of it is that the Democrats are doing this to themselves.

I can feel it comin' in the air tonight...

IDPA.

I have a day off from work. I have an IDPA match within convenient driving distance. I have an IPSC safety card.

I have to give this game a try.

IDPA is closer to what I want to do than IPSC. If you are talking open carry you are for IPSC. If you are talking concealed you are talking IDPA. Now, that's not apparently a firm rule at the club I'm going to. This being Texas cover garments are sometimes eliminated.

Choices. When I took the IPSC safety course I wore an Uncle Mike's kydex holster on my hip. This holster was fine for IPSC.

It rates as the only holster mentioned in the IDPA rulebook I got today as the one you CAN'T use. Maybe the guys at this club are lax enough that it won't matter.

Or maybe I'd better look at other options.

Fobus IWB Glock holster and and Galco Combat Master intended for the G 19/23.

Maybe I should just figure on shooting the Glock 23? If that's what I want to carry shouldn't I try shooting it in the gun game?

Or should I tolerate the G22 sticking out of the Combat Master holster by at least half an inch?

Decisions decisions. The Gibsons has a terrible selection of holsters. If I could get my hands on a Galco Matrix for the Glock I'd choose that. Not sure if I ever picked up a Blackhawke CQC Serpa for the Glock.

Or chuck the Glock platform and pull out the Serpa I know I have for my Beretta 96D? With the trigger job it's better than standard. The club is more likely to overlook the aftermarket grips than a non-permitted holster.

Or take the DOH of my BladeTech DOH holster for the CZ SP 01 and shoot 9mm?

I haven't been practicing enough.

Not for scoring.

Sissy.

If you put that in your holster and carried it you'd not worry about practice. You know you can hit a torso sized target up to 50 yards without even trying. Handgun, rifle, it doesn't matter. You just got too used to firing into those 3" Shoot-N-C targets.

You could shoot this thing with the 27 and you know it.

Quit trying to beat yourself before you get to the paper.

This is a gun game.

You are better than that.

Go and show them. You are better than they think. You are better than you think. You are good. Not fast. Not yet. But you are good.

Whiskey River Part II

The exploration of bourbon continues. Jim Beam Black is okay but not worth the premium. Eagle Rare is a single barrel bourbon. Taste is lighter than some I've tried. So far Jack Daniels No. 7 or Bulleit are my favorites.

At least bourbons are half the price of good single malt scotch.

Whiskey River

Whiskey River take my mind.
Don't let her mem'ry torture me.
Whiskey River don't run dry.
You're all I got take care of me.

Yes, that is perhaps the ultimate Willie Nelson song.

I learned to drink beer so long ago that I hate to think about it. Olympia (do they still make that crap?), Schlitz, Falstaff, Miller, Bud, Bush, Coors.

I had drank wine and some mixed drinks. For a time rum and coke were what I craved. Haven't tasted one in nearly two decades.

Along the way through my life I tasted Irish and Scotch whiskeys and decided that they were for me. Scotch more than Irish. The flavor was more rich and complex.

Yes, I've used whiskey for analgesia. When Vicodin didn't ease the pain after surgery Scotch did.

I'd avoided bourbon. To me bourbon was the foul-tasting stuff I sometimes mistook for soda in a glass that tasted worse than medicine. Bourbon balls were different, but just barely.

The move to Texas has prompted me to explore more whiskeys than just Irish and Scotch.

So far I've tasted Jack Daniels, a Tennessee bourbon and Bulleit, a Kentucky bourbon. I've also tasted Crown Royal. The Canadian whiskey on the rocks seemed light, almost tasteless. I prefer richer flavors.

Jack Daniels is OK. I'm trying to decide if I prefer Kentucky to Tennessee method. Kentucky is limestone filtered, Tennessee is charcoal filtered. There are some complex differences between the two I tried.

The flavor is not as bad as I recall. There are rich flavors that rival those I find in Scotch. I think I'll be exploring these for a time.

Tomorrow I should be trying my father's brand, Jim Beam.

NOTE: Alcohol and gunpowder do not mix. I will not touch a gun or gun part when drinking. When touching guns or gun parts I do not drink. Even though I do not drink past a certain warm feeling I know that my judgement is impaired and I could ease up on my safety discipline.
I've already had one negligent discharge in my life. I was young. I was stupid. No one got hurt. I want that to be the only one for the rest of my life.

I don't normally post this stuff

I don't normally post this sort of thing, but the headline leaped out to grab my attention.

British dwarf's penis gets stuck to hoover

That's bad enough, but the first paragraph was worse.

EDINBURGH (AFP) - A dwarf performer at the Edinburgh fringe festival had to be rushed to hospital after his penis got stuck to a vacuum cleaner during an act that went horribly awry.

You may ask your self "How could this NOT have gone awry?" Dwarf, fringe festival, vacuum cleaner. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

It's not that the size of the performer that makes for trouble. No, it's the one-up spirit of things like a "fringe festival". Last year the 450 lb transvestite singing "The Good Ship Lollipop" was the big "thing". So what's a guy to do but get out his Hoover and stick it...

You can see the problem. It could have been the 450 lb transvestite who suffered this fate if things had turned out different.