Not Yet Competent To Staff The Treasury Dept.

So, Obama still hasn't staffed his Treasury Dept. but he's fired the CEO of GM. I'd like to see the line in the Constitution giving him that power. Shouldn't he first try doing things he is required to do, first? Like make those appointments.

I can't wait to see who he appoints to run GM. Maybe Ralph Nader? Ooh! I know, Marion Barry, he's got those requirements for the Obama Administration, he has no known skills, a history of crack smoking and, most important for this crowd, he doesn't pay his taxes.

Seriously, is there anyone at all in the Obama Administration that you would trust to change the plugs and oil on a 1976 Dodge pickup with a slant six and rusted out underbody? Yet they want us to think that they can run GM? Let's see, how many of those Treasury officials that must be confirmed by the Senate have been? Oh, yeah, the tax cheat. No Undersecretaries, no Deputy Secretaries, just the tax cheat and, I suppose, a few janitors. Helluva job, Barry. I can't wait to see you staff the Warranty Dept. Think you might get the first ones in by 2012?

Something I don't quite understand is these two reporters for Algore's TV network getting caught sneaking into North Korea. Did they think they were wading the Rio Grande? The Norks actually guard their borders, for fear someone might escape, kind of like here once Obama has his Obama Youth up and running. The difference will be that the Obama Youth will let anyone in, the getting out might be tough.

I've been to a couple of sites talking about Hillary and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Yanno, I sure am tired of Democrats running around and calling conservatives stupid and cheap. Where is all this smart diplomacy we were promised? Does no one at all remember the stories coming out of the White House during the Clinton years? How staffers woud back out of the way and look away from the Hildabeast? We already knew that Hillary would never listen to a briefing from a lowly staffer, just because that staffer makes his living studying Mexico. Just like she was too smart to check with someone who speaks Russian.

So, the Party Of The People, they go around saying conservatives will let their neighbors starve while they themselves do not give to charity and, every chance they get, cheat on their own taxes. Meanwhile excusing their lack of charity by saying the government should take that over. While they cheat on their taxes. I'm really starting to hate Democrats.

Get a chance, go over to Iowahawk and watch his video "The Country Is In Great Hands".

In local news I'm back on the old man diet again, oatmeal for breakfast and chili with beans for supper. Had kind of an accident, though, I had the beef cooked and drained when I realized I had no tomato sauce or canned tomatoes. Oops. So I used some spaghetti sauce instead. Now I'm gonna have the Italians on one side and the Mexicans on the other, all throwing rocks.

Note, spaghetti sauce does not make great chili. Better than no chili at all though.

That reminds me, I need to go to the store and get another couple of those sirloin steaks for the freezer before they go off sale. Seeing as how one broiled steak no makes two complete meals plus a major dog treat. Of course I used to could eat one of those, plus a baked potato and some kind of vegetable and not gain an ounce. These days, not so much, half the steak, steamed green veggie of some kind and I'm able to win a belly contest with a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy. I had to get old. Couldn't die young and leave a good lookin' corpse. Oh well, the grandkids are worth it. As long as I have no diaper duty.

Oatmeal. God help me.

It Takes A Lot Of Energy To Turn Sixty-Two.

Don't nobody tell my Doctors but I busted my diet today. It started when I had buckwheat cakes, molasses, three fried eggs and four slices of bacon for breakfast. With a big glass of Orange Juice for Tammi, plus, of course, coffee. Well, Ming and Bingo helped with the bacon but not as much as they wanted to. What can I say, getting old takes strength.

I dunno if it counts but I didn't have lunch. Supper was special, a big sirloin steak and a half pound of steamed Brussels Sprouts. Because I'm way fatter than I need to be I skipped the cheese sauce and just had a little melted butter. I also skipped the baked potato. There is about half the steak left, I'll eat that for Sunday.

My birthday cake was golden butter cake with chocolate icing. Somehow I got in trouble for doing what Linda Lou told me to do. She sent me to the store and told me to get cake mix of my choice and those little number candles, a six and a two. So I did. Then when we were putting up the groceries she saw the number candles and burst into laughter. She didn't think I'd buy them. But she told me to buy them. So I did.

So we had a big party, Linda Lou, the dogs and me. The dogs really like to help with steak. I ate well enough to make it to tomorrow. It might have been nice if one of the kids had thought to call.

Stranger And Stranger Or The Orange Toe Chronicals

The news just keeps getting stranger. So we now think that people are buying fully automatic weapons, along with grenade launchers in US gunshops and smuggling them into Mexico. Um, I spend a fair amount of time in gun shops and can plainly state that nothing is further from the truth.

Even if I had the money and the willingness to go through the reams of paperwork that buying a full auto takes, since the Clinton Administration's rules limiting the number of such weapons make it cost ineffective to do so.

The Mexican gangs are buying their weaponry from the Mexican Army, from Hugo Chavez and from the Castro brothers and assorted other badniks. Don't believe me? Then walk into your friendly neighborhood gun shop and ask for a full auto AK or Uzi. Then click on a website like Midway USA or Graf and Sons and try buying a thousand rounds of .223 or 7.62x39 ammo. Heck, it's still almost impossible to buy a thousand primers.

I am curious why the mainstream press thinks it's a good idea to lie to their customers, over and over again. Any time you see the phrase "gun show loophole" you are reading a lie. A federally licenced firearms dealer has to fill out the paperwork and call the BATF hotline. Period. Now in many states a private citizen can sell his own guns with no paperwork, and yes, some do carry their extra stuff to a gun show. Others advertise in the newspapers, I wonder how come the newspaper people never complain about that?

I find it interesting that most of the people getting these dreaded AIG bonuses have been working for a dollar a year, plus a nice bonus if they stayed the year to wind down those operations. I wonder why Obama didn't tell us that? Or Barny? Seems that a dollar a year is the new rich. If a dollar a year is a bloated plutocrat then what are OUR taxes going to?

I went to the Podiatrist yesterday for some work on an ingrown toenail. No big deal, the only thing that hurt was that cold spray, to numb me up for the shots. I did look kind of funny afterwards wearing my big hat, jeans, western shirt and carpet slippers. Anyway I did my best to ignore the toe, the last thing I saw was the Doc painting my toe with bright orange antiseptic. I then put my nose in my book and next thing I knew she was putting my big toe in a bandage.

From there we drove to Mesquite, Texas to Southwest Ammunition Supply. I wanted another thousand Winchester Large Pistol Primers to load my Cowboy Action ammo. They were out of Winchesters and the Remington Primers are up to $39.99 a thousand. That's up eleven dollars a thousand in only a month. So I bought Mag Tech Primers, a brand I'm not familiar with. Mag Tech is a Brazilian company. Sao Paulo, I believe. I dunno how long they'll be in business as the new regime in Brazil seems to be slightly left of Barack Obama. Still, they just had a vote repudiating gun control.

Anyway it wasn't long ago that primers were less than a penny per for the best, the Federal Gold Medal Match. Now foreign primers are thirty bucks a thousand. Plus tax. Sigh. I think I'll use the Brazilian primers for the black powder .45 Colt ammo and save the last 600 of my Winchester primers for my brass cased shotshells and the few hunting and combat loads for the .45 Colt rifle.

From there, following Doctor's orders (heh) we drove down the street to Paperbacks Plus, a used bookstore. We take old books there for credit and buy more. I scored big. I bought an unauthorized biography of Louis L'Amour, fifteen of his paperbacks, two of Elmer Kelton and Joe Hyams' book, Flight of the Avenger, the story of George H. W. Bush in WW2 and his courtship of Barbara. Plus a copy of Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp movie. So that's 19 books and a movie for $27.60. That's a pretty good deal.

So then it was time to head home, we made a quick stop for dog food and bird seed and suchlike and then home. I made a stop at Pop's Fried Chicken in Terrell for a treat, a dozen fried chicken livers, fries and a couple of his corn meal muffins.

Think the dogs weren't glad to see us? Well us or those chicken livers. It's the next day now and there is only a slight twinge in my toe. After Linda Lou takes her nap we'll take the bandage off, clean it up and put the official Doctor's goo on it and re-bandage. Life sure gets exciting when we get old. I bet I'm the only guy in Texas that dresses up to go to Wal Mart.

Bingo Butt

I think everyone ought to have a good look at a Bingo butt. That was the night he was really proud of it, every time I looked his way he was aiming that butt right at me.

I was going to show some photos of Rex but for some reason we cannot get them to any kind of setup to put them on Blogspot. Oh well, he was still a good boy.

I'm going to see my Neurologist tomorrow, actually a new one. I really like my old Neurologist, Doc Walker but he is just so far away and also, so popular that it can take two months for a routine visit. So, well see how the new one does. I don't know why but in the last few days I've been weak as a kitten. Maybe the Doc will have an idea.

The big news here is that Linda Lou fell again, this time in the shower. Naturally she landed her butt on the faucet and knobs so all that is broken. To add to the fun the water was gushing so I went out to turn the water off at the meter. There is a humongus fire ant nest out there so I got eaten alive, I have thirty fire ant bites on my left hand and arm, more on my right hand, arm and legs. I have that shower plumbing blocked off now but one of the connectors is leaking slightly, I'll get a new connector on the way home from the Doc. Until then it's turn the water off untill we need to flush the toilets, turn the water on, flush, fill the jugs, turn the water off.

People wonder why I'm always in a bad mood. I do not understand why Linda Lou won't be more careful. She knows she has poor balance but she keeps trying to throw herself around like a sixteen year old. Sooner or later she will fall just wrong and break a hip, or her spine. Will she listen? Noooo!

The more poison I put on the fire ant nest, the more fire ants. Lucky me. I hope that the poison just hasn't got carried to the queen yet.

Chris Wrote The Part Of The Stimulus Making Bonuses OK.

So it turns out that Chris Dodd wrote the part of the Stimulus Bill Okaying these bonuses that he is screaming about now. I don't really expect Democrats to be too smart, after all, they're Democrats. Anyone electing Nancy Pelosi as their leader can't be all that bright. But one would thing that Dodd would at least have the sense to talk about something else. Shutting up would be more than I could expect.

Now I know that See BS or the New York Crimes will never mention this but if I know, so do multiple millions of other people. I do not understand how people this stupid can remember to breathe. Dumber than a pile of hammers.

I don't have a lot to say this week. I dunno why but I have no new dog pics, either. And the next Shoot is on the 28thm I may skip it for the second Sunday shoot. The Sunday shoots move faster, they are less crowded. And I have a pal that I might get interested in the game.

I just read that Obambi is taking the guns away from the pilots, the few pilots who managed to squeak through the maze to get them. Oddly, there are still lots of guns on Air Force One. Isn't it kind of odd that the guy who is supposed to protect and defend is worth more than we are? Here is an idea, if we can't have armed protection, neither can he. Let's see how long that would last. There is no word about extra Sky Marshals, either.

I wonder what this peabrain will do after another few airplanes fly into skyscrapers? As hard as the Donks tried, most folks knew that 9/11 wasn't Dubya's fault, we also know that he went into high gear protecting us from the next one. Sometimes a bit too far. Now Obambi is removing the very best idea on stopping the next one. Why? We trust these flight crews with a gigantic airplane with three hundred people on board. Most pilots were trained in the Air Force or Navy, but they can't be trusted with a gun?

I am afraid that it's way past time to ask the question that should have been asked back during the Primaries. Not the one about competence, we know the answer to that one. The question, whose side is this guy on? I don't think we are going to like that answer.

Speaking of whose side is this guy on, now he wants to charge veterans' insurance companies for care for service connected disabilities? Is he out of his mind? Good luck even finding a carrier that would take on veterans.

I made a deal back in '64. I gave Uncle six years, he promised me a few things. One was total medical care if I got hurt. Another was a funeral. Well, Uncle has already reneged on the funeral, no way can I be planted on what they are paying. And now, if I have to go to the VA, they'll charge my insurance? In my case I've fooled them, since I went on disability my insurance is Medicare.

There is a reason, though, that I told the kids not to join during the Clinton years. I believed a Democrat once, LBJ. He said "and we are at peace. And we well stay at peace. Wasn't very long before I was up to my backside in mud with complete strangers shooting at me. Funny, the only difference since then is that Democrats have gotten worse.

How Do We Fix The Banks?

I hope y'all will pardon me for not really understanding the banking crisis. It seems to me that the main problem with the financial system is that the government required lenders to lend money to people who had no chance of paying it back. This was called affordable housing.

Now when I was a boy affordable housing was a small house, often old. There were many people living in affordable housing, many in houses they built themselves. I knew people who still had outhouses built over holes in the ground.

My parents rented a small house up an alley until, in the mid fifties, they bought their first house. Three bedrooms, one bath, no central heat, no air conditioning. Within walking distance of their railroad jobs. The price? A whopping $8500.00. My parents lived there until my stepfather died in '85, my mother would not stay there after that so she and her sister bought a house very much like it 'cross town. That house sold for over two hundred and forty thousand dollars, after whatever mortgage was paid off. So, this house was worth about what the house I finished growing up in, about 8500 1955 dollars.

This is another part of the banking crisis, money just isn't worth much anymore. About that same time, they bought a Mercury. A big old Monterey station wagon with the big V-8 engine, automatic trans, fake wood sides, etc. $4800.00. In those days that would buy a base Caddy, too. The problem there is that dollars aren't worth anything anymore.

In the 1880s a twenty dollar gold piece would buy a new Colt Single Action Army revolver, a box of shells and a holster. Today a Colt SAA will cost well over a thousand dollars but the amount of gold in that 1880 twenty dollar gold piece will still buy a new Colt SAA.

Our currency was fairly stable right up until FDR's time when we went off the gold standard. FDR hurt but our money was still backed by silver so it was still worth something. I remember that gold was worth $32.00 an ounce, we panned a little out of the western rivers. So, those 1955 dollars were worth one thirty-second of an ounce of gold, each. Today gold is about $900.00 an ounce. What that really means is that our dollars are worth about a thirtieth of what they were in the fifties. The biggest difference? In the fifties our dollars were backed by something valuable, first gold, then silver. Today's dollars are also backed by something, a politician's promise.

So, how do we get a handle on the banks? We can't. Geintner can't fill the important deputy and undersecretary positions. Why would anyone take these positions? Anyone who tried to fix the problem in the financial business would be savaged by people like Frank, Dodd and Rangel. And those who aren't smart enough to fix the problem will eventually have to face the vast majority of people, you know, the ones who do not have nine mortgages on that $932,000 house, now worth a dollar ninety-eight on the open market. The ones who carefully put money into retirement programs now worth nothing.

Now Obama is still rairly young, so is Geithner. Plus they have well trained bodyguards. They will probably stay ahead of the large crowds with pitchforks and torches, buckets of tar and sacks of feathers. What about those Undersecretaries?

We are seeing these tea parties now. What will we see in a year or so when Obama's plans come through. When the coal fired plants are history, long before anything is ready to replace them? When energy bills are a lot higher but we still have outages? When the auto companies are history, along with the aircraft industry? When waiters and bartenders are on the street? When the Dow is at 3000?

What will we see when Obama and company get their hands on health care? Sure, Congress will have the same thing they have now, the rest of us? Some of my pills are VERY expensive. I figure I'll be doing without in a matter of a couple more years. Oh, well, I never expected to see the age of 21 anyway so it's all gravy. But what about kids with cancer? There are a lot of people totally dependent on the drug companies, more who are praying for that next breakthrough. When was the last time you ever heard a Democrat thank a drug company? Heck, when was the last time you heard a Democrat thank ANY business?

And that's why we won't see this bank crisis end. The people who caused it are running the "rescue". And instead of doing anything to help, they're spending billions on their supporters.

Update: I just noticed that Obama has an "Urban Czar". His name is Adolfo Carrion. Now I'm sure that this guy is really nice and all but should Obama have picked a guy to save the cities named after dead critters? Is that what our cities will become? Places full of carrion?

Why Didn't Someone Tell Me?

So I brought home two packages of Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts for the freezer because they were on special. Unfortunately the freezer is just about full so I had to cook one. I looked around the recipe sites and discovered that chicken and dumplings takes almost no ingredients, water, chicken, spices and you can make dumplings with canned biscuits. (Don't tell my Momma I'm using canned biscuits)

So I put a package of chicken into a pot with some water, some garlic powder and minced onion and a bay leaf, boiled it for a while with salt and pepper, fished it out, cut it up, put it back in and dropped a can of cut up and rolled round biscuits and cooked it all until it was done.

The next batch I'll try squeezing the biscuit dough down some, other than that it was just about perfect. Someone should have told me how easy it was. So now I have a new thing to eat when I am too lazy to do any serious cooking.

In other news I had my follow up appointment with the Doc, seems I'll live another six months, maybe longer.

Some loud leftie wants Rush Limbaugh executed for treason. But dissent is the highest form of patriotism, doesn't she remember? Is there anything more despicable than a leftist? Have we heard one apology from any of them for saying that The Evil Bush was going to cancel the election or at least refuse to let Democrats take power? Heck, not even one "O" key missing from the keyboards at the White House.

Meanwhile, they're trying to excuse the new Administration's screwups by claiming that Obama didn't expect this much work. Perhaps if he'd slow down the partying he might have time to mind the store. And what is with his Secretary of State and that stupid red button? Am I to believe that there is no one in the entire State Department that speaks Russian? Am I further to believe that someone who just resigned as the junior Senator from New York can't remember that there is an entire neighborhood in New York City chock full of fairly recent immigrants from Russia? I think that whole crowd needs to pee in the bottle. I don't think they'd pass.

Today In History

March 6, 1836. The Alamo fell, all 186 defenders died. They died giving Sam Houston time to build his army. They died giving the women and children time to get out of the way of Santa Anna's juggernaut. They died building a nation.

Best of all, they are still giving the multicultis fits a hundred and seventy-one years later. Those of you who drink, raise a glass to Col. Travis, Jim Bowie, Davy Crocket and the rest, from Juan Abamillo of Texas to Charles Zanco of Denmark. And don't forget John. His last name and birthplace long forgotten, John was a freed black who died free, fighting for freedom in an age of slavery.

Yearly Shots And A Ride In The Car

Expensive day today. The two Pugs got their shots and wellness checks and are ready for the year. Ninety Bucks. Considering that they wouldn't make a good pot roast between them, that's a lot of money. The Doc wants to expand Bingo's nostrils so he can breathe better. Sorry Bingo, the price he quoted, you're just going to have to wheeze.

The ligaments on Ming's front paws are shot, nothing much to do about that but carry her down the stairs when I take her outside. She can jump up, down is more of a problem. I dunno how long we'll have her, she's not getting any younger.

After that we all went by Wally World to pick up Linda Lou's new prescriptions, Ninety-two bucks just for the co-pay. Getting old is not for the fainthearted. Then, off to Mesquite to the dry cleaner/laundry to pick up our western shirts. I am going to have to check out the laundry/cleaners in Quinlan. We went to the one in Mesquite back when Linda Lou drove right by on her way to work. Seeing as how she's been retired for some years now, and there isn't much reason to drive that far, especially after spending way more than I expected, it's time to make the switch. I am going to miss that laundry, though. The young women that work the front are rather pretty and the minute I walk in the door they ask for my phone number. Now, that's just to identify my laundry but, at my age, I can use the encouragement.

I had planned on buying another thousand large pistol primers since I was near Southwest Ammunition Supply in Mesquite, after the shots and pills that will have to wait. I have a pretty fair supply but each Cowboy Action Shoot takes about a hundred and fifty primers, usually about 120 for the .45 Colt revolvers and rifle, another twenty five or so for the shotgun, the Mag Tech brass shells take large pistol primers also.

I did drop by a used bookstore where I bought another six Louis L'Amour titles. I read most of them back during the Southeast Asian War Games, they were spread out in every base camp and fire base. Mickey Spillane was all over, too. Along with some really poorly printed and bound and very raunchy p0rn. The good news is that it's been so long since I read the L'Amour books that they're new again.

I am going to have to find some new authors, soon though. Mr. L'Amour will write no more books, being dead and all. I have read some of William Johnstone's stuff but it's hard to believe in his heroes. His gunfighters killed more people than Cholera, TB, AIDS and the Black Plague, combined. In every book.

From there I got caught up in rush hour traffic on the way home. I would have gone at a different time but for the Vet appointment. Being retired and living in the country I'm not used to traffic anymore.

I stopped at a Chinese Restaurant and bought an order of curried chicken to go for supper. I'm going to have to learn to cook that. And then, home, the dogs were glad to get there, too. So was I.

In other canine news, Rex died. Rex was a German Shepherd that lived down the street who was in love with a bitch we'd rescued. So he would sneak in the house when we'd let our two dogs in and then lay down and try to be invisible dog. Then the husband of the family decided he liked strong drugs more than his wife, children, home and dog and they all left, leaving Rex. At about that same time our boy in Phoenix got burgled and needed a big dog and a shotgun. So, the next time we drove out, we took Rex. That was quite a little drive in my PT Cruiser, me, Linda Lou, Captain Fatbob the Pug and Rex, plus Linda Lou's ton of luggage.

Anyhow, Rex was getting old and he finally passed. Rex was a good boy. Another dog, waiting at The Bridge for us.

Why The War On Rush?

Was not one of the things everyone was mad at Nixon about was his "enemies list"? So, let me get this straight in my head. Nixon had an enemies list and was just awful. Obama has someone calling reporters from the and he's just wonderful.

The more I read about politics the more I realize that Richard Nixon was not some awful wrecker of the American Way, simply someone doing business as usual. It was the sainted Kennedy brothers that wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr. Franklin Roosevelt locked people up in mental hospitals all through WW2 if he didn't want to fight the courts, there was no habeous corpus back then for the loony bins.

Woodrow Wilson and the Palmer raids were not a shining example of open and honest government, either. But leftists only believe that freedom can be assaulted by Republicans. After all, Janet Reno's Justice Department burned children to death at Waco but lefties are all up in the air about waterboarding the guy who planned 9/11.

Still, this is the first I've heard of high administration officials having conference calls with news agencies attacking private citizens whose crimes are talking on the radio.It wasn't long ago that the whole media was all up in the air over Bush and Cheney being overheard calling Clymer a um, er, Clymer. And the left claims to hate hypocrisy.

Obama isn't even the worst, though. Imagine that you are in charge of raising money and trying to get Republicans to run for office. Now imagine there is a radio talk show host with twenty million listeners, the vast majority of those listeners of your Party. Imagine that you not only insult that radio guy but then say that your own Party's convention looked like something out of Nazi Germany.

Now I will admit that I've never been elected to anything higher than Precinct Chairman. I think, though, that it's a bad idea to comare my Party to something out of Nazi Germany. Nor do I think that it's a really smart idea to just willy nilly pick a fight with twenty million of the people you are going to be asking for donations and votes.

Now, I don't expect the Party's National Chair to march in lockstep with Rush. He is not required to do that. Rush isn't even a Republican, he is a conservative. Now it happens that the Republican Party is closer to conservatism than is the Donkey Party. But the vast majority of Rush's fans ARE Republicans. Now, the Republicans got fifty eight million votes last election. I think, that's off the top of my head. So the Chairman of the Republican National Committee first calls his whole Party Nazis. Then he compounds this insult by further insulting ONE THIRD of the base. No wonder they call us the stupid Party.

Dear Mr. Steele, you might think about noticing that the Republicans no longer run the White House. So, tomorrow, when the Chief of Staff to the President calls to give you the orders of the day, try to remember, that's not the guy wanting Republicans to win.

Oh, and all you civil liberty types? Why don't you see if Rahm Emanual is making his calls from the White House? That is supposed to be a bad thing, remember? I know this because you keep saying so, whenever there is a Republican in the White House.

Cold Day At Jacob's Plain.

Yesterday was the first Cowboy Action Shoot I've managed to make since my shoulder surgery last spring.I took the old camera, somehow it died, though. So, no new pictures. The hard part is going to be prying the "new" camera from her grip. Anyhow, these pics are a couple years old.

It wasn't that the temperature was so low, the low was 38 and the shoot didn't start until nearly ten AM. Trouble was, the wind. Directly from the north and it eased down to about 20 mph, gusting to thirty+. I don't quite know what I did to Army Wife, Toddler Mom to make her send that awful Newbrasky weather here.

My lack of practice really showed. So did the residual damage from that stroke. I kept blowing the target order. The sweeps were kind of complicated, too. Not that I care all that much, I don't move fast enough to win any matches anyhow. I don't even try, the winners run from point to point. Forty years ago, sure. Today I won't run with a loaded gun. Maybe if the steel outlaws were shooting back...

My handgun accuracy was somewhat off, not catastrophically but still down. My shotgun was okay, a bit slower but the shot went where I intended. My rifle stayed good. Once I put that Marble's Tang Sight on it the rife is like that fancy cannon on the M-1 Abrams tank, it just doesn't miss very often.

Of course it might just be that I love rifles. My only objection to Cowboy Action is that there isn't enough penalty for missing. Some shooters are blazing fast but might miss three or four targets and still post high up in the scores. I was told often that "you can't miss fast enough to win a gunfight".

Since nobody asked me about how to set up this sport I just use these shoots for practice since I got awful bored with just going out and shooting all alone. These complaints aren't important, really. To win a match one needs to be very fast, this includes very low recoiling loads. So the winners shoot light bullets at fairly low velocities, sometimes ridiculously low velocities. That's fine. I shoot heavy bullets at close to the original speeds, over black powder. All those things slow me down, but when I put a DA revolver in my hands it's really fast and easy.

At least at the few clubs I've seen there are very few people who look down their noses at anyone. So, while I'm never toward the top of the scores most folks love the smoke and "BOOM!" of the BP cartridges. So, the important thing is that my shoulder held up, I don't have quite the range of motion that I had but then I can't touch my toes anymore, either.

There were a lot of folks that I don't recall having seen before, this shoot had two kids who looked about twelve or so, one a very pretty girl. For kids they change the rules a bit and .22s are allowed, as well as smaller gauge shotguns. I was pleased to see the girl not worrying about speed much and making the targets ding. I didn't watch her every shot but I did see her using her sights and hitting the steel.

I met a pair of brothers shooting their first ever Cowboy Action Shoot. They shared guns and leather and were kind of fun to be around. So, the club is still growing. The only downside to that is that with so many new shooters it really slows the match down, they need a lot more explanation. Did I mention that it was cold? Actually when the temps get more Texas-like that will be an advantage, especially with the new shade around.

Anyway, even though I have an almost-earache from spending the day in a cold hurricane, it was a good day. Made better by going with a bunch of the folks for a Mexican dinner. I had tamales with refried beans and rice. What the heck, after shooting stinky black powder ammo I needed something to keep the stink up.

Update 3/7/09: I just noticed I spelled my title wrong. It's Jacob's Plain, the name of the shooting range my club holds our shoots. Ooops!