Wyatt Goes To Court

We last left The Earp Doc Holliday in the vacant lot between Fly's Boarding House and Harwood's Boarding house. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton are seriously dead, Virgil hit through one leg and Morgan hit across the back messing up the flesh over both shoulder blades and chipping a vertebrae. Doc had a bloody chunk blown out of the flesh over his hip.

The brave Sheriff comes out from the cover of Fly's Boarding House and places the Earp Party under arrest, and then scurries away when Wyatt tells him that he will "not be arrested by you". Shortly thereafter Wyatt and Doc post bond while Morg and Virgil are recovering at home.

This brings us to Judge Wells Spicer's court. Spicer, the Justice of the Peace, conducted an examining trial to see if there was enough evidence to hold Doc and the Earps over for trial. Something that is not much known today is that Spicer was from Monmouth, Illinois, the city of Wyatt Earp's birth. I have seen, in various websites, that Spicer and the Earps were related, although I can find no statements as to exactly how.

At any rate the Spicer hearing is very well known, with the transcript available on line. The keys to the Earps not being held to a murder trial are actually pretty simple. The anti-Earp faction claims that the Eaps and Holiday shot these men while they had their hands up, surrendering. They claim that the McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton were unarmed.One can, perhaps, forgive sarcastic old Doc Holliday for asking if Virg and Morg shot themselves.

Now about midway through this hearing, Will McLaury showed up. Will was a lawyer from Fort Worth, Texas and brother to Frank and Tom. He was pretty sure he could make the Earps and Doc do that funny dance at the end of a rope. He was wrong. Judge Spicer said that Virgil was acting as a law officer and that he was legitimately making an arrest. He then blistered Virgil for letting Doc into the party and wasn't too happy about Wyatt, either, him having just buffaloed Frank. Still, although Judge Spicer was critical about Virgil's choice of Deputies, he did have the right to deputise anyone he wanted so, case closed.

Ike and Will tried three times to get the case reopened, no one else wanted the case so, the Earps were free. Virgil was ambushed by shotgun wielding assassins. Witnesses reported five or six shotgun blasts, Virgil picked up some twenty buckshot pellets, wit another twenty-odd pellets hitting the Eagle Brewery and the Crystal Palace Saloon. This was the night of December 28th, 1881.

The lion's share of those buckshot pellets went through his upper left arm. He was crippled for the rest of his life although that did not prevent him from continuing as a law enforcement officer in several cities. Some five and a half inches of shattern bone and fragments was removed from Virgil's arm and it was thought that Virgil was going to die.

It was at this time that US Marshall Crawley C. Dake issued Wyatt his Deputy marshall's commission. Now Wyatt and Morgan were both Federal Officers.

Left at the ambush scene was a hat with Ike Clanton's name written on the inside. This intensified the feud.

Welcome To The World, Christopher James

Grandchild number nine made his appearance at 1240 AM Eastern Daylight time tonight. Christopher James XXXX born in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. Nothing unusual to report about the labor, those kids seem to have making boy babies down to a science. The new boy joins his three brothers.

At eight pounds and seven ounces and 20 and a half inches he seems to be a sturdy young feller. he should fit right in to my squad in the Army of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

I shall post pictures when we get them. These grandchildren are why I do not view the left as more than a passing pain in the kazoo. Liberals have one baby, late in life. We are outbreeding them. So we see four grandparents with two grandchildren on the Lib side and us with nine, so far.

Oh, I took the picture of the gun down and my blog went back to normal. I'll repost the picture later and see what happens.

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.

Time To Start Driving.

Well, it's time to begin the blogcrawl. Since it's been twenty two years, one month and four days since my last drink I am a designated driver. But since I got the location of the Fabled Tequila Mine of Cuervo before I quit drinking I loaded up a few cases of their best in the trailer. You drunks can have a few drinks at each stop.

o, here we go, in alphabetical order starting with the Bad Example Family. And no throwing up in the backseats!

Blogcrawls And Other Stories

The Bad Example and Frizzen Sparks Families are having a blogcrawl starting tomorrow, the object is to go to every blog in the two blogfamlies and leave a comment. Assuming that one is of drinking age and drinks, the idea is to leave a drunken comment. Others may be designated drivers.

My pal Contagion of Miasmatic Review is considering murder, drop by his blog and leave any good ideas of how to get away with it.

I'm noticing the big flap about Rush Limbaugh and the "phoney soldiers" comment. The Democrats and, sadly some conservatives, are all over the alleged antimilitary bias of Limbaugh. Unfortunately Limbaugh was speaking of real phoney soldiers, the Jesse McBeths. Remember him? The guy who claimed to have become an Army Ranger, a Corporal and a combat weary veteran breaking the news about the horrible war crimes by US forces. The guy who actually washed out of Basic after 44 days?

Now considering that Rush was speaking to a professional soldier, just back from Iraq, at the time, if there was an objection to his comment it would have come up right then, and not from lefty pols, either. Am I the only one who finds it disgusting to have John Kerry talking about someone being disrespectful of the troops?

Oh, and yesterday was my 300th post. To celebrate I'm having chili dogs.

I'm Important Now!

I guess I am getting almost as important as The Puppyblender now. I just got my first free book to review. Now I never have been important, outside the house, anyway. Does this mean I have to start drinking tea with my pinkie finger stickin' out?

Anyhow I got the sorta-autobiography of an old west lawman and shootist. I say sorta-autobiography because it was written by his friend and partner Eva Gillhouse, I haven't read enough to know yet just how he meant the word "partner". I'll write that up when (if) I figure it out.

Anyway this old lawman, one of the "Hanging Judge" Parker's Deputy US Marshalls, is mostly unknown today although his caricature is well known. He is the mascot of the Oklahoma State University Cowboys.

I am a lucky man. Born into the days of antibiotics and the Polio Vaccine and many other medical miracles, I still knew many people of the old west. When I was very young there were still some (very) old Civil War Vets around. Some of the older Mexicans around still remembered Pancho Villa. I had some neighbors from Roswell, New Mexico who had stories of Billy The Kid riding through and sometimes stopping. Now Roswell is known mainly for Youfoes.

And now this, the story of Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton. Born in October of 1860, he lived to die in 1958. Born when the steam engines pulled trains he lived to see supersonic jets. I googled him and it seems that there is some controversy about how many people he killed, it seems to be between 11 and 15. I'll have to look and see if he counted Indians, everyone didn't back then.

Anyway I look forward to reading and reviewing this, stay tuned.

More Information

More information about Jena Louisiana is trickling out, not from the driveby media of course, they have their story and are sticking to it. It seems that the kids who strung those nooses said, and the school board believed them, that those nooses had nothing to do with race. It seems that it was a football deal, the team that they were about to play was named The Cowboys and the nooses were an old west thing.

Now I can believe that, my Cowboy Action Shooting Club has a gallows as one of the stages. We shoot from off and around it. See the picture. Note that none of the people in that picture are wearing white, pointy hoods and freshly laundered bedding.

I have never heard anyone go near our gallows and suddenly holler "let's go oppress black people!", including the occaisional black "cowboy".

Oh and sort of off the subject but not really, the cattle drives of 1866-1880 or so? About one quarter to one third of those cowboys driving those herds were black. Much of the trouble in those Kansas cowtowns was because the "Yankee" Kansans didn't want much to do with the integrated cowboys. Oh, and Brown vs Board of Education? Topeka, Kansas.

So, there is a lot more to Jena that meets the eye. That poor innocent kid that got fifteen years from the all white jury? Was that four cases of assault that he already had? Oh and would the jury have been all white if the black people had answered the jury summons?

Now, I don't know, I've seen cases where black kids have gotten the book thrown at them for minor fights while white kids got a talking to, but I've also seen a ton of thugs get away with things until nobody could ignore it anymore. Whichj is it this time? We don't know and the media won't tell us.

Petraeus And The Senate

Let's get this staight in our heads. The Senate voted unanimously to confirm Gen. Petraeus to command in Iraq. Unanimously as in all of them except the guy who's brain half disolved and the couple others who were too important to vote. Unanimously.

Now, about a year later 25% of them couldn't condemn this moveon.org slander. Twenty-five, all in one Party could not remember a whole year. Scumbag Democrats can't even honor their own votes. How is that battle against the Culture Of Corruption (tm)going? How about those earmarks, weren't you supposed to have a handle on them by now?

I've Never Heard Of Jena, LA But It's Coming Apart

So I was wondering why the Reverend Jackson wad complaining that Obama is acting like a white man. Naturally Brother Jesse tends to get a bit overwrought so I wasn't wondering real hard but still, wondering.So I put it in the back of my mind and went about my business. I mean Jackson and Obama, if they fight one would root for both of them to lose by a knockout.

So I was looking at the puppyblender's site and found out what Jackson is so excited about, seems that the '60s and '70s bypassed Jena and they are having those same kind of troubles the rest of us in the south went through forty years ago.Well, Jena is off the main highways but one would think they'd heard something by now.

Seems the trouble started over the white tree. Now I don't think it was covered with snow, I think the white kids liked to congregate in the shade of one tree. This is, beforof course, unthinkable. After all they can have black tables and black dorms at universities but white kids can't congregate, it's racist. And we don't get separate but equal trees, either.

So the black kids tried taking over the white tree. Trouble is, white and black still don't get along in groups. Individually most of us get along, I don't think David Duke of Louis Farrakhan (sp?) have many friends of a different hue but most everyone else does. As individuals. Most black folks I know get a tad nervous when they're surrounded by whites, most whites have the same problem in reverse. Note: before screeching about my horrible racism please note that the black tables and black dorms in college don't come from white folks. I notice trends and comment, doesn't mean I approve.

Now came three nooses hanging from the now bi-color tree. It seems the school authorities "knew" who did the nooses and expelled three white kids, the school board turned the expulsion into three day suspensions.

Then somebody burned down the building where the school board met. Now conventional wisdom says that the nooses were hung up by whites, although many of the recent examples seem to have come from blacks trying to call attention to racism. Much of the perceived racism lately has been not paying enough attention to how bad the situation that blacks find themselves in. Some how it is my fault when black kids beat each other for "acting white" if they study. And it is certainly my fault that 70some percent of black kids grow up in fatherless homes. Seems I would have noticed getting all that stray poontang but it's all my fault.

So now I'm noticing that a town of less than three thousand at the last census had a demonstration of thousands. Now I don't believe those six black kids ought to be facing felonies and it seems strange that I read of a white kid pointing a shotgun at black kids in a convenience store. Last I heard there were rules about kids running around town with a gun.

What I would really like is some honest news. It's no surprise that folks don't get along, there are entire industries built on making things worse. I would like to think that no DA would be dumb enough to try to railroad black kids but then there is Nifong. I would like to think I'm getting straight info about Jena but there is the whole of the mainstream media at Duke.

What I'd really like is for us all to fire all those bright young kids who went to J-school to "make a difference" and hire some bright working class kids who can spell "cat" and would like to make a nice middleclass income telling us what is happening, we could all decide on our own what to think about it. We'd all think something different, of course but we'd have a chance at making informed decisions.

Arrr! What if they'd waited?

Suppose the Campus Police had waited until today to Taze Andrew Meyer. Would he have screamed like a girl in Pirate Talk? Maybe "Avast with the Tazer!"

Seriously, though, he seems to have done everything but beg to have a large can o' whoopass opened up on him. I'm not sure but I believe that before he was tazed he got that one arm that was cuffed free and was flailing around with that cuff slicing through the air like a small mace. Ever seen a bluesuit that got a loose cuff 'cross the face? Lost teeth, fractured cheekbones, jaws and skulls happen, and on a regular basis. The least that happens is multiple stitches.

Now Meyer had his chances. The Police were just trying to escort him out. He then fought. So they tried arresting him. He fought some more. Now perhaps in 1971 they wouldn't have had to use a lot of physical force. Of course back in 1971 the LEOs would have been men. Men who met a minimum height requirement. There is a certain calming effect when one looks straight out and there is a badge at eye level.

There was one a day when average sized men who pinned on a badge knew full well they'd have to fight a lot more than those beefy old Irishmen. Today we've lost the size restrictions so that women and small statured men get to work the streets. Now this wouldn't be so bad, there are a lot of situations where a women can calm things down, or someone who speaks, say Vietnamese, can keep a fight from starting.

Unfortunately, we've gone way too far. Everyone isn't going to be reasonable. In the pictures and short videos I saw there wasn't a big Irishman or a very large black guy. From my screen it looked like an out take from "When Midgets Attack". I have no quarrle with hiring women for law enforcement. But can't we team them up with someone who has the size to stop trouble?

Now come the civil libertarians, none of which have ever been on the losing side of a fight to get someone into the back of the Patrol Car. Sorry, he asked for it. He got it. Now, maybe ninety days on a road gang in high summer, he might think about what he's doing.

Cochise' Apache Princess turned Eight Months Old

So I was wishing to be up in DC with the Gathering of Eagles, instead I was down here in Texas celebrating CAP's eight month B'day. Actually if the truth were known I would suspect that most of the guys and gals at the GoE would have rather been with some good dogs instead of near those protesters. Or cats. Or hyenas, jackals and buzzards.Or leeches and cockroaches or...what? Oh, sorry, I digress.

So I finally finished the last Harry Potter. Somehow, because I was retired I got to see if the first one was grandchild safe and got interested in Harry and Hermoine, Ron and the rest of that crowd. At any rate I finished the series and judge that it is granchild safe, with the following caveat. The series starts with Harry at age eleven or so, and goes with the main charecters aging a year per book. I would not suggest that this series go to a child much younger than the main charecters in each voluume.

In other news I've been rereading some old handloading books, the other month I got an E-mail wanting some information so I had to dig through the library. It is amazing the differences in the last forty years or so. It was "just yesterday" that The Answer to bluesuits being outgunned by criminals was the .41 Magnum. Now it is known that the only police problem the .41 solved was that it was heavy enough to solve the lack of backaches cause by gunbelts being too light.

Gloves Are Off, On One Side

So, The Viet Nam Memorial in DC has been defaced, so has the one in Sacramento. Someone smashed the War Memorial in Beeville, Texas, BEEVILLE!

The New York Times gave a super low rate for the slander against Gen. Petraeus and no prominent Dem has denounced it.

Hillary has hired Sandy Burglar in for her campaign.

Is it okay to question their patriotism yet?

Trip To The Vet

Today we had to take Eddie T. Dog to the vet for his annual shots. It's hard to believe we've had him well over a year. Or has he had us?

Awk! We got Eddie in late July of '06. I should have written something. Oh well, nobody tell Eddie and Ming,

We took Cochise' Apache Princess along because we had run out of Heartworm Medication for them and I needed to have them weigh her. The heart worm pills are taken according to weight. Eddie is twenty five pounds now, that's just about the right weight for a near-grown Pug.

We bought enough heartworm pills to last until February, six for CAP and a dozen for the Pugs...$238.00. TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT DOLLARS! Eighteen pills. Holy Crows. We spent only about twenty bucks more for a water heater. That's the good news, the bad news is that it will be a week or more before we get the water heater installed. The fellow that is going to help me is in the middle of remodeling a bathroom.

What we are doing is turning the water off at the meter and only turning it on twice a day and filling gallon jugs for general use. So far it's working. It does remind me of living a hundred and thirty years ago.

Oh, CAP now weighs sixty and a half pounds, she will be nine months old a week from tomorrow. I don't think she will get much taller than she is now but I believe she will get about twenty pounds heavier before she is through growing. She is a lot skinnier than the other German Shepherds I've lived with. She is like teenagers used to be, all feet and appetite. Oh yeah, and ears.

Josiah's First Birthday Party

So we drove up to Plano yesterday to Josiah Dean's first birthday party. I don't exactly know what a one year old thinks about a birthday party, he seemed to be sightly nervous about the whole thing.

His big brother, who will turn five on New Year's Eve and his friends all enjoyed it. Except that William was slightly disappointed that none of those gifts were his. A near five year old is a natural Democrat, everything is about him.

Hunting season is here, Dove season to be exact. Now to get to Plano from my place, I take county roads and Farm To Market Roads until I hit Rockwall, Texas on Interstate 30, then I drive on Interstates the rest of the way. I moved up to North Texas in '74. Back then there was quite a bit of distance between the smaller towns surrounding Dallas, now it is wall to wall suburbs. I drove through miles and miles of prime dove hunting territory. Now built up, the hunting gone.

Meanwhile the press is lamenting the drop in the number of hunters, well, duh. The less land for hunting, the more expensive the cost to lease some land to hunt on.
I remember when day leases for bird hunting was well under five bucks a day for some pretty good land. I don't know how I'm going to teach these boys to hunt. When I was a boy the most common sight in the world was a boy or three on bicycles with .22s or single shot shotguns, usually with a dog running alongside.

Now they'd call the SWAT Teams. For that matter, how many kids ride bikes unsupervised anymore?

The Body And Fender Shop.

If you haven't yet, drop over to the sidebar and click on Quality Weenie's Site. She just got out of some surgery and could use a little company. She is lucky enough to be home now. I'm not quite sure she's up for a comment party yet, though. Maybe next week...

I've spent enough time in the body and fender shop to know that it's a pain, although it's better to go in as a civilian that as an enlisted man in the Service. A mistake the military made was to give medical people rank. When I went to the hospital in early '67 I had a couple of stripes, I finally left the same rank as that Beauchamp character was when he got published...

This was not unusual. It wasn't just the real silly stuff, laying at attention was always a pain but there is something about medicine that attracts bossy people in general. Now I got hurt in February of '67 and eventually ended up at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California, after the stabilisation work in other places.

I was just about 20 when I got to that hospital, they sent me there because I had family near there, otherwise I would have ended up in one of the other big hospitals, Maybe Balboa down in 'Diego or Bethesda outside of DC. The one thing the Services did good back then was as soon as you were able to travel they'd put you in the closest hospital to your family that was able to handle your condition. If it had room, of course.

Oak Knoll was huge, at the time, dozens of buildings spread all over a hilly section of Oakland. These buildings were all connected by ramps for ease of moving in a wheelchair or gurney. Now a military hospital is different from the civilian hospital. Most of the patients are young and, especially in wartime, injured rather than sick. Now a patient was kept longer than a civilian, too. Most of the civilians were sent home as soon as possible we, on the other hand mostly had no civilian homes nor was our pay enough to handle going back and forth as outpatients. Most of us were two years in before our pay got more than a hundred and ten bucks a month, outside of the whopping $55.00 bucks a month combat pay. Yanno, back then lots of us volunteered for 'Nam for that $55.00 a month.

Now, imagine this great big place full of (mostly) young, healthy men recovering from injuries. Even when hurt, young men have energy. Young men in the Services haven't lost their competitive zeal just because of an injury. I was in the ortho ward, my right leg was badly broken. The other guys had broken bones, amputations, etc. My ward had few men with internal injuries, those of us that had bullets through lungs and bellies were on a different ward.

It wasn't long at all before we had to go to the Mess Hall for our meals, first in wheelchairs or gurneys, then walking or on crutches, depending on the injury. Now it wasn't so bad with an injury to the lower leg or foot or an arm, or ribs, it got bad though when it was a spine or upper leg injury. A broken thigh or hip required a spica (sp?) cast, a cast from the toes to above the belly button on one side and down below the knee on the other, with the um, elimination ports uncovered. There was a plaster covered piece of broomstick between the knees to keep everything good and rigid. Imagine the itching during the summer, those wards weren't air conditioned.

The Navy, being what it was, did not bring these guys their meals, either. Nor did they push us to the mess hall. Instead they'd put us on gurneys and give us one crutch, we'd use it like a stick on a raft, poling ourselves from place to place. Others were on wheelchairs or crutches. Given the competitive nature of young men, racing was real common. Crutch races, wheelchair races and the most fun of all, gurney races.

It was always an adventure, a new guy learning to use crutches or a wheelchair, or even a guy in an upper body cast trying to learn the new balance, and here come two guys racing gurneys down the walkway at a full tilt boogie.

All Docs and Nurses are Officers plus all kinds of other Officers running around, medical supply, medical services, etc. Every one of them would have hysterics at the racing, arm wrestling, etc. This led to a lot of fines and demotions. It alawys started the same way...."Don't you know you know you could get hurt?" "Why didn't you think of that before sending me to get shot at?" "You have a Bad Attitude!" "Why yes, I do. There is something about having to lay in bed at attention for a bunch of people who have never heard a shot fired in anger that gives me a Bad Attitude. And why can't you do something about my pain meds being late, again and why am I trying to mop a floor from a gurney?" "Why can't these important people do their damn' jobs?"

Boom! Another Article 15. I've been a civilian for a lot of years now, and hospitalized a few times since. It's still hard not to "lay back, tall when the Doc comes in the room.

I wonder if the military hospitals are still such a mess. Probably, they're big on tradition.

I just read that the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital was closed in '96. Part of the Peace Dividend. So wounded, injured or sick Sailors and Marines from that part of the country won't be anywhere near their families.

Free Ice Cream

I've made no secret that we've been broke. When Linda retired gas was a buck and a half a gallon, prices have gone up a little since then. We knew we really couldn't afford for her to retire right then but she was just flat out tired of the grind. So we've been living on my little pension plus the $276.00 or so left from paying our medical insurance from her federal pension.

Well the other day we were cleaning out something and lo and behold we found a store coupon for a free half gallon of ice cream. When I went to pick up my cholesterol medicine I also got a half gallon of Peaches and Cream. Yum!

Today we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, financially. We went and applied for Linda Lou's Social Security today, she turns sixty-two this November. We expected some two hundred a month less than she will actually be getting. It's no body's real business the exact dollar figures, let's just say that the way the tax system is set up we'll be taking home almost as much money as we did when we were both working. Without having to drive fifty-odd miles, one way.

So, anyway, unless that light I see is a train, the fourth Wednesday in January our money problems start shrinking fast. I'm ready. Of course we wouldn't have had this problem had we saved our money instead of peeing it away on food and house payments. Oh well, at least we paid off the house and land before she retired. All through this whole thing I've been saying that we might starve in a house with no utilities but we aren't going to lose the house.

I'm not the most financially savvy guy in the world but at least I didn't get more house than I could afford, with three mortgages or whatever is going on with all these gas station attendants and their McMansions. It ain't much but it's mine. Not mine and the banks but mine.

Unless prices go really crazy we'll be able to take one big trip a year plus several smaller ones.

I did two smart things in this life, I married Linda Lou and I paid off the house.

Oh, Larry.

So, Senator Larry Craig really stepped in it. I have no particular animus toward closet queens but it seems that somebody smart enough to be elected to the United States Senate could at least cruise adult bookstores instead of men's rooms in airports.

I would normally not care about a Senator from Idaho, even a stalwart Republican. After all, there are not many places more red than Idaho. Trouble is, Craig has always been one of the firmest defenders of the Second Amendment. I guess I shouldn't say firmest. There are lots of Republicans, not so many that are strong for the NRA.

It's time to show some courage, Larry. Resign. Resign now so the Republican who replaces you will have a little more seniority come the next Congress.

And please, Congress. We give you plenty of money for staff. If you can't keep your zipper up, hire someone to service you. Just keep quiet about it.

A Quiet Sunday

Things are pretty quiet around the Poorfarm today. Yesterday was my AA Birthday, 22 years since my last drink. Better still, it's now been two years since that stroke. And two years since my last cigarette. I've never considered myself as all that brave but I was, and am, surprised at how frightening a stroke is. To find myself unable to speak and not knowing why, or if I'd recover...I owe the Docs, Nurses and other medical types a huge thanks. Especially the drug companies.

To celebrate all this I'm cooking a massive pot of red beans and rice with ham and red onions. I bought a football ham last Wednesday and cooked it and candied yams, two meals worth there, now I'm cooking some more of this ham with the beans. There are still four thick slices for ham 'n eggs. Food sure lasts longer now that there are just the two of us. Of course the dogs are trying frantically to tell us that three of those four slices are theirs. Fat chance.

I'm fixing cornbread muffins to go with, a half dozen plain and a half dozen cinnamon-apple. The plain to go with the beans 'n rice, the cinnamon-apple to go with ham 'n eggs. Of course I'll have to do without eggs for a couple of weeks after to get my cholesterol back down. Such is the joy of aging. I wonder how all those farm people lived so long eating eggs and biscuits and gravy and stuff every day. Probably they worked it off.

It's always funny when the NASCAR Race is on Saturday Night instead of Sunday. Linda Lou was asking who is subbing for Rush today since he is golfing in Hawaii. Oh, yeah. Nobody, today. Carl Edwards did his backflip, somehow he got to be King Of The Concrete. Whatever, his team sure has that car working on concrete tracks.

I'm staying out of politics today, I read the usual blogs and just wanted to pound my head on the desk. Actually I don't have anything to say but the blog must have posts, so...

How To Avoid Embarasing Yourself At The Shootin' Part Of The Blogmeet, Part One.

It seems that some blogmeets have shooting involved, no not the kind that would happen if the laws were to change and us righties got within range of the Koskids (bottom photo), but shootin' at targets or tin cans, etc. Some of us would LIKE to shoot but for one or another reason, don't. Perhaps it's a case of living where gun ownership is difficult, perhaps it's a lack of finances, perhaps there are other reasons.

The bad news is that there is no substitute for practice. There are ways to limit the shame, though. There are some tricks.

First, start with your brain. Not everyone bringing a shootin' iron to a meet has your best interests in mind. If you are familiar with cliches there is: don't run before you learn to walk. Do not grab the gun with a barrel the size of a sewer pipe. It is impossible to shoot well when you have a flinch. Save the earghesplitzen loudenboomers for the end of the session. I've been shooting some fifty years now, I still save the big loads for last.

Make sure you are wearing ear and eye protection. Every Cowboy Action Shoot I go to I get some birdshot or bullet fragments bounced back on me. It seldom breaks the skin but would not be good for my eyes. Even a .22 pistol will damage hearing.

Shooting starts with your hands and feet. You should start with your feet about shoulder width apart with your weak-side foot slightly forward. (See second photo from top)Now, take the shootin' iron and put it firmly in your strong hand, the back of the butt should not be against the web of the thumb but should be in the meat of the palm (see third photo from top).

Your trigger finger should be off the trigger until you are ready to shoot. Then, just the tip of the finger goes on for any shootin' iron with a light, single action pull. Double actions require more of the finger on the trigger (See fifth and sixth photos).

The weak hand wraps around the strong hand (fourth photo). There are two main shooting stances, the Weaver Position and the Isosceles. In the Weaver your elbows are slightly bent, this helps absorb recoil. The body is at an angle to the line of fire, the weak side foot slightly forward. (Fourth Photo again)

The Isosceles has the arms straight out, although the elbows still aren't locked, the body is more or less square with the line of fire. Note that in a scenario with several targets we will almost naturally flow from Weaver to Isosceles or vice versa as we switch from target to target.

Now, the sights. The rear sight is a notch, or groove. It may be adjustable, it may be fixed, that doesn't matter unless it's your gun. I get downright testy when someone messes with the sights on my guns. The sight picture should look like a picket fence. There should be an equal amount of light showing on the front sight and the front sight should be even with the top of the rear sights. The target is balanced on top of the front sight. Our eyes are not able to focus on the rear sight, front sight and target so focus on the front sight. The target will be slightly blurry, that's okay.

Now, hold the gun, close your eyes and bring the gun up to firing position. Open your eyes and look through the sights.If the sights are not on the target, move your feet. Repeat this process until you raise the gun and your sights are on the target. Now you're ready to shoot. Finger goes on the trigger, press and "click". Watch the sights. If you are jerking the trigger they'll go away off. A good trigger pull the sights will barely twitch.

Okay, now load 'er up and make some noise! Note, when I was learning to shoot the rule of thumb was that it takes five thousand rounds to make a pistol shooter. With the modern shooting schools this number is much smaller but still the only real way to be a good shot is to shoot. Back when I was shooting competition I would shoot one day, handload ammo the next, then shoot, then handload. Every day got some dryfire practice.That is what it took to be at the top of my game. After I gave up competition I went to shooting once a week, my scores dropped about 10-20 percent. Now, of course, since the stroke, I can't hardly hit a bull in the butt with a base fiddle. Still, I'm a better shot that 99% of the criminals out there because I've learned the fundamentals.

Since there is nothing about rifles in this post the top photo is of a rifle, specificly a Ruger 10/22 with a Shilen Barrel and Hogue overmolded stock, plus a lot of internal parts like trigger, sear, etc. How to turn a $100.00 used rifle into a $400.00+ tack driver in one fell swoop. If you REALLY need to hit something, grab a rifle.

Arrgh!

Okay, so I wrote a long post and finally illustrated it with photos. You just don't KNOW how long it takes to upload a lot of photos with this dial up I have, either, only to discover that Blogspot put the whole thing into last month's archive because that's when I started it.

So, if you want to see pictures of me waving a few guns around, and how to wave them, step into the archives and see July 24, 2007.

I never really understood people complaining so bitterly about Blogspot, I mean it's free, it's simple to use. Okay, now I'm starting to understand.

Oh well, here is your how-to, Harv, if you want it.

Traffic Jam

I got my sitemeter Stats report today as I do every Friday. Traffic is up by a factor of some two and a half, from 60 visitors a day to one hundred and fifty-six. Woot! Seems that that link from Patterico helped, but not near as much as Blogpappy Harvey linking me to IMAO. I may become the most famous feller nobody ever heard of.

Now, if I can just manage to write something good a couple times a week I might just someday make it all the way up to Marauding Marsupial in the TTLB Ecosystem. Trouble is, I don't always have a whole lot to say.

I am about 2/3s of the way through a long article on shooting, it should be up Monday. I have to shoot the photos. I wish I knew how to caption a photo, it would make the article easier to follow, I think. Oh well, I just do the best I can.

No new dog pictures this week, soon. CAP, the most beautiful German Shepherd Puppy in the universe tuned seven months old Wednesday. I'll shoot a few photos of them while I'm taking pictures.

Other than that I got nothin'.

We Wait And We Pray

Just about everyone has heard that we've lost another Chinook Helicopter and five aircrew over in Iraq. Some may not know that my friend Teresa, the proprietress of Technicalities, has a son serving in Iraq. That son is a flight engineer on a Chinook.

As I sit and pray for the safety of my friend's son I can't help but know that five sons (or daughters) ARE dead. So we pray, hoping that He will understand that we are not praying for someone else's world to crumble, although someone's has. Just once, Lord, five unmarried, surly orphans. No? Then, please, not my friend.

Note: If you are antiwar or antiBush, please pray anyway. We, the nation decided on this war, right or wrong. The decision was made with plenty of discussion, lots of information. Every congresscritter had access to the same information that Bush and Rumsfeld had. Some of that information was wrong. Some was right. Just like in every war in history. Just, please, don't drop a bunch of Bush lied! comments here. Not now.

Welcome Home, Karl.

Well, the television airways were dripping with hatred yesterday, Karl Rove will be leaving at the end of this month. The Left is heartbroken, he'll be walking out swinging his arms, not being frogmarched in handcuffs.

I found it really interesting the media types talking about how the Democrats beat him on immigration, the Dubai Ports Deal and the '06 electiom. Hmmph. When did Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin join the Democrats?

I am really looking forward to the Congressional hearings, the Donks are sure to subpoena him "investigating" those US Attorneys. I can just see Karl answering those "probing questions"..."What part of serves at the pleasure of the President don't you understand"?

I've never really understood the hatred for Rove, or Bush either, for that matter. Those two are a lot of things, classic conservative is not one of them. Ted Kennedy wrote the Education Bill, he had much to do with the Medicare drug benefits, too. Yet with all this cooperation from Rove, and Bush, there has been no reciprocation.

I am really wondering what the Donks will expect if they ever win another Presidential election. Do they not realize that the Republicans can, and probably will, behave just like the Donks have since 2000? Now, that would be fine by me, I figure the more gridlock, the better. Just remember, if the Donks won't let a Republican President appoint judges, why should the Republicans not do the same for a Democrat?

Anyhow, Karl will come home, to a fairly small town near San Antonio. I'll be sure to wave as we go down to visit our youngest son and his wife and kids just south of San Antone.

The Party Of Tolerance.

Okay, so Jerome Armstrong got into trouble with the SEC and has to pay some $30,000.00 in fines. Now I know, because they always tell me, that only Republicans are interested in money. Armstrong, being a honcho at My DD, a far-left website, cannot be interested in money, it must have been a mistake.

Here is what I don't understand, though. After the news got out the Koskids answered with "closeted gay, Matt Drudge". Now, I don't know Mr. Drudge and have never seen his closet. I check his website several times a week, it used to be several times a day but the popups and popunders are annoying, so I found other paths to the news.

Why is it that gays spend their political money on Democrats? The Donks claim that we Republicans are the intolerant ones. Yet when the Beauchamp saga hit the news, what was the reaction from the Left? "Matt Sanchez starred in gay porn!" Now, folks on my side of the aisle didn't know that, mostly, and those of us that did, kept it quiet. Now, the only way I know Sanchez is through his reporting as an embedded feller checking out Iraq. Gay porn is not my particular kink. It's not that I'm perfect, I'm nowhere near. I have my own particular kinks, everyone does. I don't talk about them with just anyone. The kids didn't need to hear them, they got to grow their own when they got old enough. Whatever they may be. They keep quiet about them out of respect for the grandkids, who will get their own kinks when they're old enough. Hopefully the grandkids will be Republicans and Only they, and their sweeties, will know what those kinks will be.

Why is it that it is always the Left screeching about who is, or might be, gay? And please don't call Fred Phelps a man of the Right, I've never seen him at a Republican gathering. Yet the gays shovel the lion's share of their political money to the Party that sides with the Palestinians, the people who throw gays off the roofs of tall buildings. They donate to the Party that is against us doing anything to the Iranians, who hang gays from construction cranes.

Of course, the gays aren't the only ones going against their own interests in supporting the Party Of Tolerance. Remember James Byrd and the NAACP ad against George Bush in 2000? Under the governorship of George Bush, we Texans caught, tried and convicted those three peckerwoods that killed Byrd. One got a chance to turn on his "friends", he was sentenced to life, without parole. The other two? They'll get the needle, unless the Donks stop it. Yet it's the Republicans who hate blacks, notwithstanding that the Donks are the only Party with a KKK Kleagle in the Senate.

Women send the lion's share of their money to the Party of Ted Kennedy and Gary Condit. Have any Republicans in Congress killed any women lately?

The world is insane.

More Pictures

Somehow I made a mistake trying to clear a picture out of the last entry and lost the pictures of the other dogs. Not lost forever, mind, just out of that entry. It being almost naptime I blew it off until now. Naptime is important.

The three sided dog war still goes on. Ming The Merciless is still the Alpha Dog, it is the funniest thing in the world to see her chasing CAP across the living room, CAP running with her tail between the legs. Ming convinced them both when they were puppies just who the boss dog was and won't ever let them realize how much they've grown.

CAP and Eddie stay locked in constant battle over the only toy in the world or the last bone in the house. It doesn't matter that there are piles of other toys and bones, whichever toy or bone one has is the only one and must be fought over.

Speaking of bones, my ankle is about half healed, now. I can actually stand up for ten minutes or so before it starts hurting, maybe twenty minutes of sitting with my feet on the floor. Speaking of twenty minutes, that time is about up. Stupid dog, kicking me like that.

She Still Hasn't grown Into Those Ears

We took some new dog pictures. CAP is a week short of seven months old. She is still growing like a weed. If I grab her by the front paws she can easily give me a kiss and the face, and does.

Eddie T. Dog is just about full grown.By this time next year he will be as big as he'll ever get as long as we pay attention to his diet.

In other news, our water heater has sprang a big leak. I was really hoping to avoid more catastrophes until December or January, when Linda Lou should start getting her social security. If anyone cares I'm getting real tired of being broke. It's too bad we threw so much money away when we had it. Oh well, another five months.

On Strike!

So, it seems that the Lefty Blogosphere wants to start a union so they can get health insurance. Well, I've always had a curious sort of mind so I tried an experiment.

You see, I am somewhat unhappy with the pay and benefits of blogging. Not only don't I get any money but I have to pay for my connection to the Internets, plus buy my own computers. So, I started a union. The Amalgamated Brotherhood Of Bloviating Underwearclad Peters, local #1. The first thing was to organise, so I talked to myself for a while, my wife shook her head.

Then the ABOBUP asked management for a raise. Management (me) told the Union (me) that there is no money for a raise (or much of anything else). Infuriated, the Union had a strike vote, the vote was 100% for the strike. So, the Union made up a picket sign and the entire membership of ABOBUP, local #1 walked off the job. The Union membership started a picket line, marching up and down the living room with the picket sign, shouting Union slogans and singing "Solidarity Forever" that famous old IWW song by Joe Hill, that feller that got hanged for murder, way back when.

The picket line started off okay, the entire Union membership (me) was walking the picket line, the dogs following, right up until I started singing. That's when the strike fell apart, Cochise's Apache Princess started howling and Eddie T. Dog and Ming the Merciless crossed the picket line to get to their Mama for protection from the awful noise. The picket line being broken, the strike ended.

Management's only concession was a bowl of Navy Bean Soup and a cornbread muffin. The union foiled again.

Update 08/08/07: Commenter Triticale reminded me that Joe Hill was shot by firing squad instead of hanged. Union lore claims that he may have been innocent, I know that all the prisons in the USA are filled with innocent men, many caught in the act.

The claim is that the firing squad used soft point (dum dum) bullets, which is actually no problem. Soft points are not supposed to be used in warfare because if a soldier is wounded the powers that be want him to have a reasonable chance of recovery. The whole point of a firing squad is that the feller doesn't survive, hence the Officer coming up with a pistol to check to see if the feller is moving. There is no recovery.

Beauchamp, Again

Okay, now TNR is offering as proof of Beauchamp's truthiness that his story of how his horrible treatment of a woman wounded in an IED accident happened in Kuwait. Yes, the war is so horrible that it robbed him of his decency before he even set foot in the country.

We have a new problem, PTSD to watch out for. Yes, friends, Pre Traumatic Stress Disorder. Please write your Congresscritter, we'll need to spend a few billion studying this disease. Since it affected Beauchamp before he ever set foot in Iraq I volunteer to take a few million to study this new form of PTSD, I'm qualified because I haven't been to Iraq, either.

And Another Thing

Since this round of Jihad started up Westerners have been killed by Hamas, Hib'zhallah, Islamic Brotherhood, AlQ, the PLO, and a host of other outfits. Islamists with no apparent connection to any organised groups have killed us, look at the DC Snipers, that African American Muslim couple of white loners.

So, with this evidence before us, why do we let the Democrats get away with saying the entire fight is with the Bin Laden bunch? When I was a kid reporters were curious, that is why they went into that business. Today it seems like their only job is to repeat Donk talking points.

Imagine if the Republicans of WW2 were like the Democrats of today...North Africa never bombed Pearl Harbor. Guadalcanal never bombed Pearl Harbor. Normandy never bombed Pearl Harbor. Iwo Jima never bombed Pearl Harbor...

We never landed ground troops on Japan until after they surrendered, thank the Lord. Actually FDR put the bulk of our forces into the ETO, against Germany and Italy, the Japanese got what was left over. You remember the Japanese? The ones that bombed Pearl Harbor.

Obama Wants To Invade?

Okay, let me get this straight in my head. Obama wants to pull our troops out of Iraq and invade Pakistan. I confess that I am no expert on the thought processes (if any) of Democrats but if they claim that our Military can't handle the 26 million people in Iraq, a country that is fairly flat, with navigable rivers, what on earth makes him think that we can swing an invasion of a mountainous, nuclear armed, country of over a hundred and fifty million?

Y'all must forgive me for bein' a poor dumb redneck but why is it that Democrats never support our military's operations that are actually happening but are always very supportive of potential operations. Kind of like how in '98 the Democrat Administration, the Democrat-led Senate and the then-Republican led House declared regime change in Iraq to be US policy.

So, Obama wins and the troops pour into Pakistan, greeted by the Paki Army, Air Forces, etc. How long before the Donks turn on the military?