Something Awful Has Happened

Okay, somehow an awful thing happened to this Blog. Somehow the colors have changed but not in every browser. In AOL the blog is the same old visible color scheme. Thing is, in Firefox it has changed to something that can't be read. Dark blue print on a dark brown background. But not in AOL.

It's too bad all the kids were grown and gone before I got my first computer. Why would the color scheme change in one browser and not another? I think I need a couple of aspirin and a nap. Let's see, how many different browsers are there?

Is Anyone Out There?

The only thing anyone comments on here are dog pictures so, here some are.

Did anyone at all read the previous entry? Is it worth working hard on a piece of history or should I just post pictures?

October 26, 1881

The trouble had been building for a while. Part of the trouble was political. Most of the in-town power structure was Republican and Union. In the countryside they were mostly southern and Democrat. One of the main people, though was southern and apolitical, John Henry Holiday. Doc, as he was known, was only involved because of his friendship with Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp. Now it is hard to say at this date it but it is often said that Earp wasn't just Doc's friend, he was his only friend.

Doc, you see, was not a particularly friendly sort. Some say he was just born mean, others say that the Tuberculosis made him that way. In those days, before antibiotics a case of TB was a long, slow death sentence. Doc drank to control the pain and, being a walking dead man, was abnormally prone to get into disagreements, sometimes leading to the knife or the gun. When you know you are in for a slow and painful death, why avoid danger? Since coughing blood and phlegm all over your customers was not really considered good dental practice, even back then, Doc had taken down his dental shingle and taken up the profession of gambler. Please note that in 1881 gambler was a respected profession.

Now, Doc wasn't the only gambler, Wyatt had the Faro table at the Oriental Saloon. His brother Virgil was the town Marshall, read Chief of Police, his brother Morgan was a Deputy Marshall and his brother James was a saloon keeper. Virgil was also a Deputy US Marshall. Morgan and Wyatt also worked off and on as "shotgun messengers" for the stage company. A shotgun messenger was that feller sitting beside the stage driver armed with an 1878 Colt double barrel shotgun. Truth be told, many shotgun messengers preferred the 1873 Winchester .44-40 for the same reason many modern bluesuits like an AR-15 clone over the pump shotgun, the added range.

Much of the argument over the gunfight in the Harwood's vacant lot/part time lumberyard between Fly's Boarding House and Harwood's boarding house, some 80 yards from the OK Corral (what a mouthful, no wonder it's called by the false name "Gunfight at OK Corral".) is just like the arguments over today's events. Today there are only a few facts known for sure.

The cow-boys as they were then known were not ranchers, or cowhands as we know them today but men who made their living going across the border to Mexican ranches and rustling their cattle. Nor were they above the attacking of smuggling caravans. Google the Skeleton Canyon Massacre. Old Man Clanton, the father of Ike and Billy, was the leader of the cow-boys until he was killed, probably by a Mexican posse in revenge for his raids.

Leadership of the cow-boys fell not to Ike but to Curly Bill Brocius. Seems that everyone but Ike knew that he was a not very brave blowhard. The only time he seems to have any courage is when he was full of whiskey.

Now the gunfight had been brewing for some time but it really began the night of October 25, 1881. Ike and Doc exchanged words in a saloon. Doc was a "special deputy" in a saloon, sort of a cross between a bouncer and a rentacop. This job allowed him to go heeled, as they said. He was allowed to carry weapons in town, unlike most people.

At any rate Doc was rather unhappy with some of the things Ike had been saying and was ready to fight. Ike had no gun on him so he retreated. He then kept drinking and got madder and madder. By the time Doc had gone to bed, in Fly's boarding house, Ike had worked himself into a rage, wandering the saloons and sporting houses, telling everyone of the awful fate awaiting Doc and the Earps. Sometime during the night Ike had gathered up his shootin' irons and seems to have gone everywhere but Fly's, "looking for Doc". Since it was common knowledge where Doc lived most people will wonder just how Ike could have missed him.

Meanwhile the townspeople reported Ike's parading around, drunk and armed with revolver and Winchester, to Virgil. Somewhat grumpy about being awakened early Virgil dressed and went looking for Ike.

Now comes the part that proves the Democrat/Clanton version of the events is a lie. Virgil Earp found Ike Clanton. Now the Democrat/cow thief (but I repeat myself) version of this fight says that the cow-boys had their hands up and were surrendering and the Earps and Holliday just cut loose on them. We know this is a lie simply because Earp did not shoot Ike while Ike was armed. Instead he "buffaloed" him, went upside his head with the side of his Colt. It is an interesting aside that the Colt Single Action Army revolver was far more popular with western lawmen than the big Smith and Wesson or Merwin, Hulbert& Company revolvers because those guns tended to bend in odd places while the Colt lasted just fine. Now television and the movies have given us a bad description of how to buffalo a bad guy. In the movies you see the Sheriff use the barrel of the gun. False. That way is a good way to make the gun point in odd directions. One example I know of, a feller bopped a bad guy wrestling with another Officer over the top of the head, his double action revolver then shot over a foot high at 25 yards.

Anyhow, down went Ike, then Virgil hauled him to the courthouse where, once the judge was found, he was fined $25.00 and $2.50 court costs. Virgil took Ike's guns to the hotel and saloon that was the main cow-boy headquarters in town. Ike could pick them up on his way out of town.

During this, more cow-boys got into Tombstone. One of them, Frank McLaury (or McLowry or Maclowry) bumped into Wyatt. Wyatt showed how he was known as one of "The Fighting Earps" by buffaloing him.

Soon after all that the cow-boys were in Spangleberger's Gun Shop and Wyatt moved a McLaury horse off the sidewalk. Words were exchanged. Meanwhile someone finally told Doc that Ike was looking for mim, and armed. Doc is reported as saying "If God will let me live long enough to get some clothes on, he shall find me."

Now comes three PM on the 26th of October. The cow-boys are gathered in a lot near Fly's boarding house. This lot was often used as a lumber yard, it was empty of lumber at the time, the lumber having been sold during one of Tombstone's building booms.

This lot is some 70 to 90 yards from the OK Corral, between Fly's photography Studio and boarding house and Harwood's boarding house. Harwood owned the lot and also sold lumber. The cow-boys there were Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom Mclaury and Billy Clairborne. Another cow-boy that was either there at the beginning or right near was Billy Allen.

Again townspeople told Virgil about the cow-boys. He went by the Wells Fargo Office and got a double barreled shotgun, loaded, of course, with buckshot. He then gathered up two of his brothers, Morgan and Wyatt. Earp brother James was not handy. The three Earps were headed to the vacant lot when they met Doc Holliday. Virgil told him he didn't need to be involved and Doc said "That is a Hell of a thing to say to me". Virgil, knowing that he could not keep Doc out of this affair decided to give Doc the shotgun and took Doc's walking stick. Doc had a longer coat that the Earp brothers and the shotgun was neatly concealed.

Now they were four, walking through this town, on their way to one of the most famous attempt at a misdemeanor arrest in history. It was then that Sheriff Johnny Behan showed up, trying to stop Virgil from going the rest of the way down to the lot. Behan, a Democrat, was very friendly to the cow-boys, many still say in league with them. Imagine! A Democrat allied with criminals. Who could say such a thing? Anyway, Behan claimed that he'd solved the problem, the Earps and Hollidaycould see no sign that Behan had collected all the revolvers, Winchesters and other assorted hardware so they kept walking. Oddly, though, they must have half believed Behan as Wyatt and company put their guns in various pockets.

Note that few western lawmen and townspeople wore gunbelts. Wyatt, for instance, lined a pocket of his coats with leather so his gun wouldn't snag and to keep it less visible. He wasn't nearly alone. Men did not walk around in their shirtsleeves much, either. All of the Earp brothers and Holliday were dressed in frock coats with vests. Doc was the only one in the party with a holsted gun.

Now the Earps and Doc arrive, the only one of them that had a hand on a gun was Doc Holliday, that a shotgun reached through a slit pocket on his long coat. Meanwhile there were five cow-boys there, plus Behan and Billy Allen, both close by, and an unknown number of other cow-boys and sympathisers around. Virgil, having nothing in his hands but Doc's walking stick, said "Throw up your hands, I want your guns!" This is when things got confusing to researchers. The Democrats say that the cow-boys lifted their hands and the Earp party then started firing. Now I discount this as if that were true then it is extremely unlikely that there would have been two survivors from the cow-boy side, nor would Virgil and Morgan been pretty badly wounded, plus the scratch hit on Doc.

Nonetheless things got hairy, quickly. Virgil, still holdning the walking stick cried "hold it" I don't want that!"
Too late, the dance had started. Doc struggled to get the shotgun out from under his coat, Ike ran up and started grappling with Wyatt, Virgil still had that darned stick in his hand, Morgan drew. Wyatt threw Ike off and yelled "get to fighting or get away", Ike ran. So did Billy Clairborne. Meanwhile Wyatt shot at Frank Mclaury, Doc is known to have filled Tom with buckshot, Virgil got hit in the leg and kept fighting, Morgan was shot through one shoulder, across the back, and into the other shoulder. This shot chipped a vertebrae.

Meanwhile, after Doc had emptied the shotgun and before he had his revolver aimed Frank hollered, "I've got you now!" to Doc. Doc replied "you're a good one if you do". Frank then shot Doc right through his now empty holster, tearing a nice gouge of meat out while he was at it. Doc then hollered that "I'm shot, through and through!" Doc then answered the shot with another bullet through Frank. Frank died shortly after. Meanwhile poor Billy Clanton was a regular lead magnet, shot through both sides of the chest, his right (gun) hand and the gut.

The fight was over. Bystanders had to keep Doc from shooting Frank some more, he was rather angry. They convinced him to stop, mainly because Frank had already been shot through the head and Doc, with his fine training in dentistry, knew that Frank was as dead as he was going to get. The only cow-boy left on the scene still living, was Billy. Still having his gun in his left hand, he was begging for more bullets. Soon, however, the adrenalin wore off and Billy spent the next fifteen minutes or so screaming and dying. His last intelligable words were something like clear these people out of here so I can get some air. There was plenty of air, he couldn't use it because his lungs were full of blood.

Now, to this day there are those who claim that Tom Mclaury was completely unarmed. He was standing behind a horse with a Winchester in the scabberd, though, and some witnesses claim to have seen him shooting a revolver under the horses neck. At any rate Tom's main guns were still at the hotel where he'd checked them. No handguns were found near Tom's body. I am conflicted. I am hesitent to place too mach faith in the witness who saw Tom shoot, remember, there were a lot of heavy caliber guns going off with Black Powder loads, the smoke would have been very thick.

At the same time, the drawings I've seen that claim to know where everyone was puts Tom, or someone unknown, as the only one that could have fired that shot across Morgan Earp's back. So, either Tom fired that shot and someone picked up his gun and spirited it away. We know that Tom had just collected money from a butcher for a bunch of (stolen Mexican?) beef he'd sold him, over three thousand 1881 dollars. Could that butcher have given, or lent him a gun? Sure. And the only other explanation is that one of the folks in Fly's pegged that shot. Now, Behan, Ike and Big Nosed Kate, Doc's on again, off again lover were all in Fly's, plus Fly, of course. As a matter of fact Fly himself came out with a rifle and he is the one that disarmed Billy Clanton.

This is why I believe that Tom had a gun. Had anyone in Fly's pegged that shot at Morgan that telltale black powder smoke would have told too many people the truth.

As soon as the shooting was completely over, staunch Democrat Behan came out to arrest the lawmen. Some things never change.

Those citizens that kept Doc from shooting Frank a little more may have kept the Earp brothers and Doc from getting their necks stretched, they were cleared in an examinging trial that is still sometimes quoted in law today.

Then came the bloodbath. It became open war.

Hurrah For Bobby

My neighbors to the east in Louisiana have gone an elected themselves a new Governor, Bobby Jindal. He is the first nonwhite Governor since Reconstruction, back when Republicans were appointing the pols in the south.

Isn't it kind of strange when it takes breaking up over a hundred years of Democrat rule to come up with another nonwhite for Governor? Why is almost like the Democrats might be, um, exagerating a bit in their tales of Republican racism. Nah, that couldn't be. Why those pictures the Democrats put out with Jindal's skin darkened after the pictures were taken, why that was just to, um, to, um, to, yes, remind people that there are some pretty smart conservatives out there who do not have blue eyes. Yeah, that's it. It couldn't possible be that the Donks are projecting their own racism, could it?

Anyhow, Bobby J has a reputation for being smart as a whip and has the reputed ability to squeeze the taxpayer's money until the buffalo on the nickle farts. That's a start.

Off Premises Guns

I haven't commented on the Rebecca Aguilar mess because I don't watch television news. News people are, for the most part, idiots. Isn't it odd that the two majors in colleges with the lowest average SATs are education and journalism?

At any rate I am not surprised by Aguilar, she has always been just a hair to the left of Vladimir Lenin.

There is one important thing in this story that hasn't been commented on, why that poor old guy had to go buy a new shotgun. If, God forbid, you are caught in that old guy's situation and have to blow away a bad guy in your home the LEOs will take that gun as evidence. It will sometimes come back after all the trials are over, many places they are gone forever.

Here is what is not known. Most jurisdictions the LEOs will hoover up all the guns around, regardless of whether or not they were used. That's right. Use a gun to save your life and be left defenseless. So what if the guy you blew away is from a family of career criminals. So what if there are several others worried that you might testify against them. All the guns get taken. Now this is not necessarily the idea of the individual bluesuits but comes from the political types who give the orders.

Any citizen who lives, or works, in a high crime area who believes in armed self defense should have at least one off premises gun that the government does not know about. Now depending on the situation that gun could be kept at a friend or relative's home or buried out in the backyard.

Now this guy in Dallas lived where there is no waiting period, So, if the guy he blew away has friends, he is okay, he's already rearmed. What if he had lived in California? Or some other benighted state with a waiting period? Or worse, someplace where the laws could take a firearms owner ID Card? Remember, this guy had been broken into over forty times before blowing away the first bad guy. And had his gun taken. And then the next one. And had his gun taken.

Will Academy Sports run out of shotguns before West Dallas runs out of crooks? West Dallas being what it is, I'm betting that Academy will run out of shotguns.

Now the best way to hide a gun is to buy some PVC threaded Pipe and end caps with plenty of pipe dope and a big handful of silica gel packets. Put the gun and ammo and stuff in plastic bags. Put a bunch of pipe dope on the threads and put the gun, ammo and silica gel inside, screw it all together tight, let it dry real well and bury it, quietly. Then don't tell everyone.

Naturally I would never do this myself.

Conservative Bedwetters?

I have noticed that the left has gone to use the term "conservative bedwetters" to describe those of us who believe that America has enemies who are serious in their efforts to harm us. Oddly their constant bleat about 'Bush's tyranny' don't seem to count.

How come I am a conservative bedwetter because there is an unknown but sizable percentage of the Islamic world that want to kill my grandchildren while it is perfectly normal to go on national TV and complain that Bush is silencing the opposition? How come when Bush tries to have our security types listen in to foreign phone calls it is spying on Americans?

We have decades of attacks on America, Americans and American property to look at while the left says that Bush won't come back to Texas in January, 2009. After all those recounts and re-recounts they still say that Gore won Florida, even after even the New York Times admitted the truth.

I know few Conservatives who are worried about themselves, most of us are worried about the country and our families.

So now someone famous that I had never heard of falls down while walking her dog and the left fills up with rumors of a right wing attack. Here is what I'm not really smart enough to understand...Why is it that leftists think they are so brave because they attack people with no thought of ever attacking them while they side with those who will, if they win, kill them.

We see "feminists" siding with those who put their own women in Burkas. With those who perform clitorectomies on their young girls. We see gays marching with Palestinian flags while the Palestinians throw their own gays off tall buildings. We see nationally known journalists accusing our troops of deliberately targeting journalists while the Islamists have killed them.

Even all that is not particularly surprising. What is surprising is how brave the left is. While we on the right don't attack them, they attack us. That poor Air Force guy shot for no reason because he is in the Air Force, for instance. Yet the left tells themselves about their wonderous courage.

I wonder what it would be like if their fever dreams came true. Suppose there weally were Bush gulags spread all over the Prarie? Suppose we mon the right really did start attacking leftists? I have no way of knowing for sure but I expect the left would act just like George Soros did as a teenager when he cooperated with the Nazis sending partisans and Jews to the death camps.

There is only one Klansman, Byrd, in the Senate and the only Nazi in American politics is Soros. That is the dirty secret in politics, the left screeches about Nazis and Klansmen while being led by them.

Note: In interesting news, unlike the political stuff, Cochise' Apache Princess turned nine months old Monday. She still hasn't grown into those ears and paws.

NASCAR Cooties

So the Democrat staffers of Congress' Homeland Security Committees needed shots to go down to Alabama and North Carolina. I wonder if it was really to protect the racefans from turning Donk? From what I've read that means that NASCAR fans will be pulling the straight Republican ticket.

I don't quite understand this, it seems that a NASCAR track is far healthier than Washington, DC. Of course there is a lot I don't understand.

NASCAR has it's roots in the rural south. It started with the moonshine runners racing their cars. Now the southerners have moved all over the country since those days and they took their music with them. So we have NASCAR in places like California, lots of southerners moved there, Michigan, lots more moved up there to build cars, and unlikely places like New Hampshire and Pocono.

Here is what I don't understand. NASCAR is being broadcast on ABC/ESPN this time of year. The year starts on Fox, moves to NBC and ends up on ESPN. Okay, fine. But why does ESPN/ABC start their broadcast with the Sammy Hagar? Okay, I undrestand that they are trying to broaden the market and that the new fans may not like country music. Fine, throw in some Southern Rock, then or some Gospel. But every week they start the broadcast with something that just annoys the fans they already have.

The Rolling Stones. NASCAR. This just does not fit. Oh well, I record the race, let it get started good and then fast forward through the Sammy Hagar. I wonder if the sposors paying for this know about TIVO?

Saturday nights race at Lowe's Motor Speedway was a heartbreaker for Ryan Newman fans, he jumped ahead after the green came out and was pulling far ahead of Gordon when the back end came out from under him and he backed into the fence.

Someone at Goodyear is going to have to decide to put a little softer rubber on those tires so the boys can have some traction.

Update. I wrote this late last night, actually this morning and wrote Rolling Stones instead of Hagar. Sorry. All those guys who have to stand in the sun twice to cast a shadow look alike.

A Little Update

I know that few care but just for grins, I finally got the weeds knocked down some time back. By the time it was finally dry enough to mow the dogs were disappearing in the back yard. The bad news is that even now the cut grass is so thick that the mower bogs down in it.

It's also nearly two weeks since we finally got the new water heater in. A long hot shower beats the foo out of using baby wipes. The downside, of course, is the people driving off the road, blinded by how clean and shiney my backside is, right through the bluejeans it's blinding.

The left seems to be making a major move to shut down free speech these days. Somehow wondering about the choices of this Frost kid's parents is attacking children. I have nothing against the kid, I am not happy about the parents choices. Linda Lou and I have the same number of kids, I don't recall her asking the taxpayers to pay for their health insurance. In saying this I may get my address posted on some lefty website.

If anyone knows Michelle Malkin please tell her I'd be glad to loan her some ammo.

It's a sad night. I was just on the SASS Wire, the website of the Single Action Shooting Society and we lost a pal. Longshot Logan had a heart attack and is now causing trouble upstairs. He was a master woodworker. He made some of the prettiest handgun grips and rifle stocks I've ever seen. He was also a master of the photoshop and kept us in stitches on the Wire. RIP, LL.

A Phoney Real Soldier

Things get stranger every day. Now the Mayor of Atlantic City is just out of a clinic. Seems that his actual Army record of 20 years of honorable service with two Bronze Stars and two tours in the Southeast Asian War Games wasn't enough. He had to tell everyone that he wore a Girl Scout Hat, too.

I wonder if you can still start a big, fun brawl by asking a Spec Force Operator for two boxes of Thin Mint and a box of Shortbreads? But I digress.

Anyway this Robert Levy fellow had a perfectly good military resume. I don't know if his Bronze Stars were with the "V" for combat valor or just plain for doing a really outstanding job, it doesn't matter, really. Like millions of other men he went where he was sent and did what he was told. Very well, too. Bronze Stars don't come out of cereal boxes.

But for some reason, that wasn't enough. He had to embellish. Sigh.

Just How Powerful Is Soros?

Here is what I don't understand.... So Tom Harkin almost ended his political career back in 1992 with his claiming to be a Viet Nam Veteran. This has been mostly forgotten in the fifteen years since.

John Kerry, who promised to release his military records, but never did, was hoping we'd forget about that promise.

Yet when Media Matters saw a chance to hit Limbaugh these two, whom many of us view as being on the very top of the "fake soldiers" heap answered the call of this wholey owned George Soros subsidiery.

Now there is a whole room full of Democrat politicians that don't like Limbaugh, after all he disagrees with them. Some of these Democrats are even veterans who did not lie about their own service or the service of others. Yet Soros speaks and these two men, known liars about Viet Nam, leap in front of the TV cameras. They must know we'd remember. Now these people know that one of the top rules of politics is "let sleeping dogs lie".

Yet Soros speaks and they leap up and kick that dog. What is odd is not that Harkin and Kerry are for sale. The odd thing is how cheap they are.

So, The Voices We On The Right Listen To Must Be Approved By Harry Ried And George Soros.

So, I should have predicted this. Y'all remember when Ann Coulter got all that poo flung at her for being less than enthusiastic about John Edwards manliness? I tried to warn everyone about letting them have an inch. Now Tom Harkin is doing to Limbaugh what Kerry tried to do to the active duty military back in the '70s.

Now I have no problem with those who do not like Rush Limbaugh, There are a lot of folks that I don't like and more than a few who I do not listen to. This does not mean I want them removed from the airwaves. This is why I hate leftists. They go around saying that we on the right are a threat to free speech while trying to silence those who do not agree with them.

Now, Harry Reid is complaining about Limbaugh, trying to get him thrown off Armed Forces Radio. Worse, Tom Harkin has the gall to complain about Limbaugh's phony soldiers comment. Harkin! The guy who tried to pass himself off as a combat pilot over the skies of North Viet Nam when he never served there.

Now I have no problem with those who put on Uncle's suit during that war but never served in 'Nam, we went where we were sent and did what we were told. I do object to lying about it. Now I always figured it took a pair of big brass ones to fly a Navy Jet and had anyone asked me I would have said that it took a lot of courage to ferry planes to the big bases for service. What is the one thing we know about ferrying an airplane for service? It needs service, ie. there is something wrong with it.

I can see it now..."Peter, this airplane needs servicing, fly it over the ocean to get that work done." "Get your Momma to fly that airplane!" Nope, I wouldn't have done it.

But why lie? All Harkin would have to have done was say I flew Navy Jets. I never went to Viet Nam, the Navy needed me elsewhere. Harkin signed up, Like George Bush he flew the airplanes Uncle wanted him to fly and flew them where he was told to fly them. Bush told the truth, Harkin lied.

Now, Harkin wants Limbaugh thrown off the air. Reid wnats Limbaugh thrown off the air. Soros, too. John Kerry says that Limbaugh is denigrating soldiers. It is enough to make Jesus weep.