Evil Boosh!

So I'm sitting around reading because I have nothing in particular to say and I notice that the lefty blogs are all about that evil Boosh !!!!11!! trapping innocent little Spitzer with the Patriot Act and his illegal wiretaps.

The laws that got Spitzer had nothing to do with the Patriot Act, the wiretaps were all nice and legal, too. I have no idea what the lefties will do when Bush thanks God and comes home to Texas in January '09. They are having so much fun being persecuted. They are so brave, standing up against the evil Boosh!!!11!! Their dissent is being stifled, they are beings silenced. We know they are being silenced because they are on national TV constantly telling us how they are being silenced.

Poor Susan Sarandon and her boy toy, how can they get any rest having to constantly be on the news talking about how they are being silenced. 'Course I'm just a country boy, I always thought that when you are being silenced you should, I don't know, maybe shut up.

I'm enjoying the screeching from the Left about some Republicans voting for Hillary. Of course that Koz guy had told his groupies to vote for Mitt in Michigan since the Donk primary wouldn't count. Oh, and for the exact same reason that Limbaugh wanted folks to vote for Hillary. Yet the lefties are crying.

Ever notice that the lefties like to go on and on about how they are so brave, standing up against the evil Boosh!!!11!!! and his administration? Funny how their guy, Clinton, sent tanks against a bunch of religious wierdos down in Waco, then had all the evidence that wasn't burned buried. Remember that steel front door? The one that the news photos showed only bullet holes from the outside, none coming from inside? Sorry, folks, the Clinton Administration killed Americans. Then jailed the few survivors, on damned flimsy evidence. Not that I stay up nights worrying about that crowd. I told the kids back then to never get involved in a church where the leadership is decided by gunfights. But still, The Democrat Administration burned children.

The left is so brave. Well, right up until someone comes along killing daughters for not being good Muslims. Then they start screeching about the evil Boosh!!!11!!! After all, honor killings are their culture. Watching my grandchildren grow up in freedom is a big part of my culture but somehow my culture does not matter.

Oh well, I'll try to post some dog pictures soon.

So, What Is The Fight All About?

So we seem to have a big fight going over who, exactly, is going to control the Democrat Party. We know the Clintons did control it. During Bill's tenure they lost Congress and a ton of governorships but the Clintons got very wealthy. Bill, of course, came up in Hot Springs. Bill and I are of an age so a look at Hot Springs in our youth will show a city wholly owned by the Mob. Unlike most cities Hot Springs did not belong to one particular Family, instead it was kind of a vacation spot for OC types. It was also a place where many of the famed Prohibition and Depression Era gangsters hid out. Owney Madden ran the town for Meyer Lansky of New York. Lucky Luciano was arrested there, sent back to New York, tried, convicted and jailed. Eventually Luciano was turned loose in Sicily during WW2.

Bill's stepdad and uncle were both on the edges of this group as was his mother, if only through her gambling. Once Bill got active in politics his first big financial backer was a "businessman" named Gabe Crawford. Bill's uncle Raymond worked for New Orleans Mafia Boss Carlos Marcello.

So, the Clintons were a wholly owned subsidiary of the southern Mob and did right well by themselves. Now Hillary wants her turn at the trough. It is possible, I suppose, that Hillary never knew about all this. It is equally possible that Bill Gates will give me half his money.

On the other side of this fight for control of the Democrat Party is Obama. He is pure and clean as the wind driven snow. Elected as a State Senator in Chicago and, as we all know, no Democrat in Chicago has ever been connected to The Outfit. Except the ones who have been elected.

The Democrat Party machinery is controlled by people controlled by The Outfit. Period. Young Mr. Obama got his start financed by people with dirty money. Rezko is only one, of course but he is very telling. Rezko got rich helping Obama get elected, then got richer with Obama's help. That letter Obama sent, helping Rezko get the permits and funding for a poor folks housing project is a case in point. One would think State Senator Obama would be busy enough taking care of his own district but he had time to worry about dirty projects in another district.

Obama is as dirty as any other Chicago pol, and that is very dirty indeed. No one gets the help of the Dem machine in Chicago without The Outfit.

The chances are real good that Clinton or Obama will be the next President. McCain is not going to have to eager support of the base of his Party. So, who will be the power behind the Presidency? The Outfit or the southern Mob?

Update: What on Earth is going on in New York? Spitzer is a Democrat. Democrats do not get caught in sex scandals, they steal. It is us Republicans that get caught in sex scandals. That's the rules, Republicans get caught in sex, Dems steal. Deviation from this rule is not permitted.

Loud Noises In The City.

So we have a recruiting station bombed early this morning. It's only a matter of time before these idiots, whoever they may be, hurt or kill someone. It looks as if it was a small charge of black powder in a GI ammo can, so there would be some big chunks of steel flying around.

Aside from the danger, this really annoys me because I shoot black powder. We already have uncomfortable levels of red tape to go with having black powder, along with considerable expense. Depending on where one lives we are limited on the amount we can have, as far as I know the maximum amount for a private citizen is like 25 pounds. That sounds like a lot, there are only about one hundred 12 gauge loads in a pound, though, so 25 pounds is only about a season's worth of powder for one cowboy action competitor.

Many people who live in cities have much tighter restrictions. You see, unlike smokeless powder, black powder in an actual explosive. Smokeless just burns, real fast but it's still a fire, not an explosion. So most places that sell smokeless powder don't sell black. What with the licencing and insurance rules the cost of a jug of black is almost double the real price. So, I buy my powder by online order either from Graf and Sons in Missouri or Powder, Inc. in Arkansas.

If I buy my powder by the case of 25 pounds then the price is over nine dollars a pound cheaper than buying locally. So, it really bothers me having meatheads blowing stuff up that is not supposed to be blown up. Now I will admit, back in the late 50's and early 60's we blew up a lot of stuff, stumps and gopher holes, etc. Of course no one but us were ever endangered and the laws were a lot laxer back then. And nobody cared about an extra few holes out in the country.

I'd wager that the laws about possessing black powder in New York City are somewhat stronger than in rural Texas so obviously there will be some congresscritter going after my black powder instead of wanting to lock this clown up.

Eddie Inspects The First Wildfowers And His Stolen Bunny

We will certainly get more cold weather before summer but we already have the first wildflowers blooming. I thought I'd show some pictures and annoy my Yankee pals who are still in snow arse deep to a tall Indian.

Cochise' Apache Princess cannot understand why Eddie is allowed outside the fence while she is not. She is convinced that it is sheer animal cruelty that she doesn't get to run around. She does not believe me when I tell her about those who shoot big dogs.

If anyone cares to enbiggen that one pic of CAP standing by the fence they should realise that the wire is five feet high. She might grow into those ears.

Eddie is proud of himself. He went somewhere and stole a stuffed bunny. I dunno if he stole it from the grandchild of the guy that shot George, his new puppy (which puppy I have not shot) or the kids over on the next street back. Whatever, Eddie is a bunny napper.

In non dog news, it turned out that I didn't get the surgery yesterday, it was simply the consult. I don't understand all the medicalese but it turns out that I only have one little skin cancer. The other spots are just what happens when you wait to long to die young and leave a good lookin' corpse. Anyhow the cancerous spot is real small and it is the kind with no "roots", it's all on the surface of the skin. They will cut that spot out and then cut around it about a tenth of a centimeter and inspect that under the microscope and make sure they got all the cancer. If so, they sew me up and I'm gone. Otherwise they cut a bigger piece and then cut around and inspect, repeating as necessary, until it's all gone. If they get everything the first try it should take about two and a half hours, mostly just sitting and waiting, the cutting part is about fifteen minutes. Otherwise it's two and a half hours for every repeat. They tell me to bring something to keep me occupied while I wait. Someone send me a nice chubby girl with low morals. Anyhow, this all happens on April the second. I can hardly wait.

My Duty As A Citizen

Well, I went and voted, like a good citizen. The only election I really cared about was the Sheriff's race. For the first time in forever it is an open race, the Sheriff we have is retiring. Actually he seems to have retired some time back and stayed in office. Our Sheriff's Department is a major mess these days, they just can't hardly catch anyone. So I ended up voting for the guy that used to be an LEO, lost an eye, and started a now successful private business. Who knows, maybe somebody that understands law enforcement from the street level, management and money can do something around here. As of now the Deputies all feel like they're peeing into a strong wind.

I look forward to voting, it is the only way I'm sure who my Congresscritter is. I live on the very edge of my County and, it seems, no one can decide from year to year, just where the edge of my Congressional District is. Last Election I voted for Jeb Hensarling. He was elected. This time I voted for the incumbent, Ralph Hall. I did not move. I got no letter telling me that my District was changing. And the only campaign letters I got were from the incumbent Congressman, Sam Johnson. So, even Congress doesn't know who represents me. Yet Congress knows how to handle my medical needs. Sigh. I wonder who my Congressman will be next election. I'm just hoping it's still Ralph in the General in November. Eh, by then they'll have my corner of the county in Arkansas.

If it hadn't been for the Sheriff's Race I might have switched Parties and voted in the Democrat Primary. There have been two schools of thought there, to drive a stake through the heart of the Clintons or to vote for Hillary to try to keep the bloodshed on the Left going. I thought about it, in the end I just couldn't take the chance of getting Democooties on me.

In other news, if anyone has a spare prayer I am going in for some skin cancer surgery tomorrow. My Dermatologist (spell check says that's how it's spelled) says not to worry, I'm catching this real early and the MOHS procedure is the very next thing to infallible. I believe him. Still, that very word, cancer, is a frightening word. I'd like it better if the Doc had told me that I had a case of squirming baby puppies. Oh well, I know I'll be alright. It's just that word.

The amusing thing is that the Docs see my hat in the office, it is just a little larger than a waitress tray. Yet they always find it necessary to tell me to wear a hat. I show them my hat and they don't even blush.

Update: I forgot to mention that my ballot had everybody on the Presidential race, Fred, Mitt and everyone else that dropped out. It doesn't matter, all my guys lost. So, I voted for Duncan Hunter. I may end up holding my nose and voting for McCain in the general, I may not. I'm already tired of national Republicans telling me to vote for McCain because of the judges. Let me get this straight. McCain kept a lot of conservative nominees from getting an up or down vote with his gang of fourteen antics. So now I am told that I must vote for the guy who stopped conservative judges so that we will get conservative judges. Sometimes I hate politics.

The Donks And health Care

I try not to pay too much attention to what Democrats say. I have enough trouble with my blood pressure. Unfortunately Obambi is putting out commercials on the country stations around here and I don't always hit the button fast enough.

So, Obambi promises to improve health care by going after my insurance company and the pharmaceutical companies. I am only alive today because of Big Pharma. Oh, and that stroke I had? The one where I was in surgery, then intensive care and then in the hospital for most of a week? Yeah, that one. My out of pocket expenses were the valet parking when my wife visited. My insurance covered some, my secondary insurance picked up the rest.

Oh, and Democrats hate Wal Mart for some reason. It doesn't keep them from making money on the board of directors, but they seldom miss a chance to rag on Wally World. In the past few months I've been wondering why so many of my prescriptions have not had a copay. Well, it seems that Wal Mart has started charging only four dollars for a months supply of any generic medicine and most of my scripts are generic. This means that the cost has gone down to my insurance company and so there is no more copay.

Imagine that. That greedy capitalist corporation has single handedly dropped health costs more that the entire Democrat Party. Oh, and other big pharmacies have been following Wally World's lead. I haven't seen my cardiologist since I switched most of my scrips to Wally World so my blood thinners are still at my old Pharmacy. They, too have gone to four bucks a month.

Now I actually would have preferred staying with my old Pharmacy, I like the people and their service is somewhat faster. Thing is, we hope to do some traveling now and Wal Mart is everywhere. My old Pharmacy is just in Texas. So we switched so if I'm off in some strange place I don't have to worry about whether or not I have enough of my scrips to stay alive until I get home.

I really hope the damned Democrats don't kill me by fixing health care.

The Leopard Cub is A Good Conservative.

So yesterday I went to Wally World to try to replace the Froggie that Cochise' Apache Princess turned into a Democrat by pulling everything out of poor Froggie's head. No Froggies, as a matter of fact only one of the Hartz noisy toys left, a Leopard cub.

We got the ferocious beast home and Eddie T. Dog claimed him as his own, This is good news as CAP is the one that kills the stuffies in minutes. Eddie licks and chews, CAP rips and tears.

In other news we got the word from our daughter. Grandchild number ten is due on June 16th. He will be the ninth grandson. I do believe I've mentioned that we seem to run long on boys and short on cash. The kids have decided to name him Karson Andrew XXX. We are kind of hoping that it will be a little while before he becomes XXX, though. I've been too polite to suggest spelling lessons.

The dogs are looking forward to having another boy to play with.

Obambi's Dream World

Now it has been almost forty years since I took off Uncle's suit but there is something about Barry O's latest story that rings way false. He alleges that a now Captain, then Lieutenant, had most of his platoon rotated out before they went to Afghanistan and that , once there, they had to scrounge AKs and other Taliban weapons to fight.

Understand that this is the Army so they might have done some stupid things (although I am not supposed to insult the Army 'til the war is over, per orders from Linda Lou) but I doubt that even the Army would try to use a Kalashnikov in a firefight. The 7.62x39 has a very distinctive sound, far different than our 5.56 mm. There is also the little matter of green tracers instead of our red.

Even if my whole platoon knew that some of us were using captured weapons what would happen if the doo-doo got really deep and another outfit came to rescue us, or we needed Apache gunships? Just what would those rotorheads do if they came upon a firefight and saw green tracers coming from a position?

I don't know about now but in my day they'd light it up.

The only people I know of that used captured weapons were some of the Sneaky Petes, those boys in the Girl Scout Hats who would sometimes use them to sow a little confusion into the ranks of the Little People.

I could be wrong here, again my experience is rather old. I would, though, want names and duty stations of those telling me different. Otherwise this sounds too much like those "friends" that Dick Gephardt used to have.

I do not understand why the frontrunner of a major political party cannot find an old snuffy to vet the speeches.

Update: Just in case one is a literalist...There were no Apache gunships when I was in. My branch didn't even have Hueys, much less Cobras. Not that we weren't pleased to be where the Army helos work close enough to lend a hand when needed. Our birds still used piston engines, mostly, and our pilots didn't like to get too close to the loud noises. For good reason, it was like trying to fight a fire while wearing gasoline underwear.

McCain

So I was talking with my political advisors, Ming the Merciless, Eddie T. Dog and Cochise' Apache Princess and asking about the NYT story about McCain. All three asked what could I expect. McCain was the media darling when he was attacking Bush. Now that Bush is not going to be the nominee again and the media has successfully driven the conservatives out of the race they are reverting to form.

So, Republicans, how does it feel to know that you have let the New York Times pick your nominee? Did you really think the Times would stick with him? Oh, and Republicans? You can stop with the idea that I owe you my vote.You have been retreating from conservatism sine the '94 elections. You have been voting liberal ever since and trying to keep us is line by threatening us with liberals if we didn't vote for you. Understand this, Republicans, I owe you nothing. The campaign slogan of "we will not stab you in the back as deep as the Democrats!" does not inspire me.

In other news the dogs have created a Democrat voter. If you look carefully at the pictures you will see them with a Froggie. Well, they have ripped him open and removed all the stuffing from his head. As soon as Froggie's head was completely empty he quit saying "ribbit" when we pushed his little button and started saying "Obama".

So, Now She Is Finally Proud Of Her Country?

So, I'm minding my own business, not bothering anybody, when I read how Michelle Obama is, for the first time in her adult life, proud of her country.

Let me get this straight in my head. Here is a racial minority. A woman. She has an Ivy League law degree. She has had good jobs her whole adult life. Her Husband is a United States Senator with a fairly good chance to be the nominee for President.

Ms. Obama has traveled. She has seen how women live in other countries. She has seen how minorities live in other countries. And only now can she be proud of her country? She has children that are growing up privileged. And only now?


I am retired from a job that no honest man could ever expect to become rich. Honest men in foreign countries in my line of work live in small apartments and bicycle to work. I live in a paid for home on a half acre near the lake. My car is paid for. We are officially in the lower third of income levels here and I am writing on a (paid for) computer. Suppose Mrs. Obama was living where her husband's father lived. Suppose too that she were not wealthy. Would she have a good job? Would she even have all her girl parts?

There is something seriously wrong with liberals. Nowhere on Earth do the poor live as well as they do in America. Nowhere do the middle class live as well. Well, maybe Australia comes close. No where on this planet do minorities have the opportunities as they do here. Libs are always saying that patriots cannot see the warts on the USA. That is wrong. We see the warts, we also see the good. Libs can only see the warts. It is disgusting.

Exciting Finish

So, you watch the Daytona 500? I don't write much about NASCAR, if you understand the sport you don't need me to tell you about it and if you don't understand it nothing I say will do much good.

I am really glad to see Ryan Newman take the checkered flag, it's been a very long time. The Ryan Newman fans aren't like the Junior Nation, I don't know of may people who would have to worry about what to do with old tatoos if Ryan changed numbers. Still, he is a genuine nice guy. We don't see it much because he isn't always on camera but one could hurt himself laughing around him.

And Newman has used his engineering degree, too. Not many folks know more about making a car go fast than him. It was also a real pleasure seeing his team mate, Kurt Busch, matching bumpers and pushing him to the front like that. Busch, one of the sport's bad boys, acted like he might finally be growing up. That, too, would be pleasing. Kurt has so much talent, if he ever gets the maturity to go with it, watch out.

Anyway, almost everyone should be pleased, Junior Nation ought to be happy, Dale Jr.had a good finish, probably would have been better but for the miscommunication that left the 88 out on older tires.

About the only folks unhappy would be the Hendricks Motorsports fans. That team didn't do very well, just mostly bad luck it looked like.

Anyhow it ought to be an exciting year.

Durned Dawg!

So I got up on Valentine's Day ready to do various things. I fixed breakfast for my sweetie and got ready to go online to find out the day's news. Nothing. No intertubes.

So I went outside and found the problem, the place where the phone company guy had spliced the line together was broken. Now that was broken by the dog, specifically Cochise' Apache Princess. That wire is too high off the ground for Pugs to break.

So, $99.00 later the phone company repairman had the wire replaced. I was willing to try to splice it together but he had spliced in another type of wire and the colors didn't match.

So I never bothered to take pictures for Doggie Friday. Anybody want to buy a dog? I keep hoping this one will grow past the destructodog phase before I am homeless but I'm not taking bets.

Candles And Big Wax Spills.

Well, I am proceeding in teaching myself candle making. I was all set to go to my Cowboy Action Shooting Club's work day but Army Wife, Toddler Mom sent the bug that has them down through the internets and now I'll have to get better to die.

So, I was supposed to go help paint and rip the top off the blockhouse and then help hang the steel targets for today's shoot. Instead I stayed home and used tissues, mostly. And then I'd cough until I felt a little hairy ring in my throat, swallowed hard, and repeated.

It's really annoying, too. If I'd made the work day I could have had a practice shoot, for free. Instead, no. It's really annoying. I have a few boxes of those new (to me) sparklers, the ones that aren't on steel rods, and I have a bunch of those cut up into some shotgun shells, along with the black powder, wads and bird shot. If I have this figured right it should be very visually impressive. Oh well, maybe next month.

So, I have a few really impressive smelling candles, the problem is with the wicks. I don't know if the young lady I spoke to didn't know what she was doing or if I, somehow, misspoke but the wicks are too small in diameter for the size of my containers. It's more likely my fault.

Now I've made the candles work, by putting another wick in the bottom of the containers, I just stick the already made candle into a two hundred degree F oven until the wax is melted, plunk the other wick down and, viola! Trouble is, the old wicks are glued in the middle, already so the geometry is off. Oh well, it's experimental, anyhow.

I did try taking one wick off it's little metal tab or base and wrapped it round another wick and glued that in the bottom of one jar. That worked, nicely. That is what I'll do with the rest of the jars I haven't already glued a wick in, not many. Oh well, when I have the melting, wicking and fragrance down I'm buying a gross of jars. I'm looking hard at the 16 ounce Mason/jelly jars. These are five and a half inches tall by three inches in diameter. The wax blend I'm using, that will make a candle that really lasts.

The soy wax, with just a little real beeswax, does make a candle that burns and burns. I am going to have to buy a couple of melting/pouring pitchers, the old two saucepan country boy double boiler rig spills too much. This brings complaints from the kitchen management. And my reloading powder funnels don't work real well to move the fragrance oil from the big bottle to the one ounce bottle I use for measuring. And that fragrance oil stuff is WAY too expensive to be spilling. Oh well, this is a learning experience, right?

I have figured out what to do if the Democrats win this next election. I am going to buy a big bottle of the patchouli scented oil and sprinkle some on the deck and back steps. Then when they come for me the stench will throw off the dogs.


In other news, the thing that started this whole candle mess, that new bullet lube. I think it will work. I must melt down that fifty+ pounds of plumber's lead, add some tin and cast a few hundred .45 bullets. Then lube and and try it. Of course everyone acts like black powder bullet lube is some kind of rocket surgery or brain science. Truth be told, almost any wax/shortening or tallow mixture works. Just don't use pork or beef tallow for stuff you want to keep around. Once that lard gets rancid the stuff still lubes the bullets and keeps the powder fouling soft but it smells something awful. Now mutton tallow works and so does deer tallow. Me, I just use veggie shortening, the kind with no salt or butter flavor.

Okay, it is now Tuesday night. We had a big rain and thunderstorm last night.CAP is now a mud monster again. As usual we lost the phone and the internet until late this afternoon when the sun dried out the wiring. Seems that the phone company will not repair the kind of wiring we have and it will be some months before we can afford to replace it with the kind they do guarantee. Oh well, it's not like I talk on the phone. It does annoy me to lose the 'net.

We also lost the TV Satellite service. The annoying thing about that is that it is difficult to understand the East Indian accents of the tech support folks. We have it back now after much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Last, anyone with a prayer or good wish to spare can visit Tammi, of Tammi's World and see how her family is weathering the rough patch. I haven't been there yet today due to the internet problem but when last there I couldn't even leave an attagirl comment to my tall pal, her hosting company was having a spam attack. The nice thing about being a blogger nobody ever heard of is little to no spam.

Well that is my big week so far. I must go swallow a hairy ring now.

No More Politics For These Dogs.

The dogs have decided no more politics for a while. They claim it is bad for my blood pressure. They may be right. So I am going to play with the dogs and practice making candles and my new kind of bullet lube.


When, or if, the Republican Party wants to go back to it's conservative roots, they can call me. The dogs want me to write in Sunny Lucas for President. Suits me. We could save a lot of money with a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix in that office. I'm pretty sure the Secret Service bill would go down, ever seen the teeth on one of those critters?

The cost of Air Force One would go down, as we'd have to replace that big ol' jet with a small plane with a window for her to stick her head out. State dinners would be short and cheap. Even Science Diet is cheaper than that fancy stuff the human politicians eat. And think of the savings when we pay her in pork. Yes, and Sunny would give new meaning to the term "pork barrel politics". Just think of the Border Patrol under a Sunny Lucas Administration. Take a bite out of border crime.

So, in other news, I got the stuff to make a few candles. Unfortunately there is a problem keeping them lit. The wax melts and tuns over the wick and puts it out. I seem to bemember reading that this is a sign that the wick is too small. So in one candle I put it in the oven at 200 degrees F and when the wax was all melted I inserted another wick. Since the wicks are already glued in it wasn't centered right but it's burning well. So I am learning. I think I am going to have to buy jars, all in a bunch, from a candle making place instead of the flea market. The trouble with the flea market is each different size of jar needs a different wick.

Oh well, the lilac smells good and the candle place sent an ounce of a different scent oil, "clean cotton". It smells like fresh sheets, right off the clothes line.

I would take it as a favor if no one asks why the dog pictures are at the bottom. I did not change anything. Furthermore, don't anyone ask why the Bad Example Family Blogroll is visible when I access this on aol and invisible in Firefox.

So, Now What?

So, my state, Texas, doesn't vote until March fourth,but most of the people I would have voted for are out. Somehow that feels wrong. Worse, the one man I would never vote for is the Republican frontrunner. All those really smart people are telling me I must suck it up and vote for the man that has constantly stuck his finger in my eye because he is the conservative. He is for open borders. He wants to shut down Gitmo. He fought the tax cuts. He actively fought the conservative judges.

Um, that is my agenda. So, I must get behind McCain because otherwise someone who fought the tax cuts, wants to shut down Gitmo, , favors open borders and will fight against conservative judges will win.

Okay, I admit that I'm not the smartest guy in the world. But someone explain why I should work for someone who explicitly called me a racist because I want our border enforced. I have been compromising since the Reagan years, getting about the same promises from the Republicans that black Americans get from the Democrats. Just work with us through this one election and then we'll keep our promise. Except now they say we've beaten those nasty conservatives and they'll like it. Vote with us or you get a foul mouthed big spender, only this time it's no matter how you vote.

Well, I've had it.I'll vote for my Congressman, Jeb Hensarling did a pretty good job. I'll stick with John Cornyn. The rest of the Republican Party can compromise with anyone they want. If they ever decide to compromise with me, again, we'll talk. But as long as getting along with Democrats is more important than getting along with me, it doesn't look very good.

Battle For The Soul Of The Party

We might as well face it, we will probably lose the '08 election. The "country club" wing of the Republican Party have decided that McCain is their man and they will gladly lose this election if it means getting rid of those nasty Christian Conservatives. As lose we will if McCain is the nominee.

Does anybody besides McCain really think that the big Washington/New York/California media will back McCain in the general? Or will the media suddenly remember the Keating five? Will the media suddenly discover McCain's temper and foul mouth? Or will the media go back to form, hating anyone to the right of Vladamir Lenin?

There is a branch of the Republican Party that wants very much to throw the Religious Right over the side. Well, that is fine but be prepared to lose election after election. It is the Religious Right that mans the phone banks. It is the Religious Right that walks the precincts.

The Jurassic Park Republicans do not care about this election, if they can only rid themselves of us troublesome conservatives they'll suffer through four years of Obama or Clinton. One election means nothing if they can defeat those who fought against the McCain Kennedy Amnesty Bill.

The trouble is that McCain will not win, and in losing he will break up the big tent coalition. We will be looking at another generation of lefty governments as in FDR's time.

Berkeley, 1967

I spent the Spring and Summer of 1967 in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had a little bad luck and had a badly broken leg so they sent me to the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland. Then I went to the convalescent barracks at the Treasure Island Base, both long closed now.

The actions of the present day Berkeley City Council come as no surprise. Once I was able to go on pass I I found a place in Oakland, very near the border with Berkeley that was on the bus line and had an owner that wasn't exactly careful about checking the IDs of us Marines and Sailors in uniform, since I turned twenty that year, that was important. Beer, in those days, was a major food group.

Sometime during that Spring the antiwar types got ugly. It became unsafe to wait at that bus stop alone and in uniform. Things were thrown and if a guy was on crutches or in plaster the peace and love types would physically attack him. Peace was important to them, so important that they always tried for the wallet, too. The trouble was when we were in uniform. If we wore civvies we were okay, trouble is we couldn't buy beer. So we tried to stay in groups.

Seems those young peaceloving thugs are all grown up now and on the City Council.

Every Day A New Adventure

A big day yesterday, my Doctor appointment. So I drove in to town, a suburb of Dallas, to see my GP Doc. Oh, when did a GP Doc change into a family practice Doc? Oh well, anyway I got there for my appointment only to find that my Doc had moved on and I had a new Doc. An odd thing was that this new Doc looked down my throat instead of feeling it from the other end. Nice change. Anyhow my official blood pressure is 110 over 80. Fresh prescriptions for the same old pills, drew blood for the usual tests, and I'm out of there.



Then came another adventure, I have a Pard that works in the family scrapyard, excuse me, metal recycling center, and I drove down there for fifty-some pounds of scrap plumber's lead. It cost me a hundred rounds of handloaded ammo. I could had have a hundred pounds, I'll pick up the other fifty pounds another day. Now I can cast bullets. It's nice having gasoline.



This morning's big adventure was digging out the fire ant nest that was built in the hole where the water meter lives. We have a leak in the plumbing of the new water heater, I get to fix that. The fun part is that to get the door off (the water heater is set in a door outside the house) I need the stepladder. So now I have to leave the water off for a few days so the ground dries off.



Oh well, I've done this before, I turn the water on twice a day, flush the toilets and refill the jugs, etc. The good news is that it's real windy today and the next couple days. This should dry the ground out sooner. I like that, Cochise' Apache Princess turns in to a mud monster every time there is a cloud in Oklahoma. Then we have to towel her off when she comes in the house. That is a battle worth the skills of Bobby Lee or Georgie Patton. And seeing as how I'm a country boy that hates shoes I always end up with the gigantic mud monster standing on my feet. With claws she inherited from her grizzly bear ancestors.



In other news I'm really enjoying watching the Clintons, who always claimed that Republicans are the biggest threat to civil rights ever, acting just like the Democrats of my youth. I keep hoping that black Americans will look at what Democrats have actually done for them, instead of what they say. Back in the sixties the Donks fought to keep blacks in the back of the bus. Due to solid work by the Donks the blacks can ride in any seat on the bus they want, they just get shot at the bus stop. The blacks should thank the Donks.Remember James Byrd? Now the Donks claim that a hate crimes law would have done something. The Republicans just gave two of those peckerwoods the death penalty. The one that rolled over got life without parole. Now the Donks are trying to abolish the death penalty. But it's all our fault, so say the Donks.

Someday black Americans will notice that the Democrats are still the Party of segregation. They just let a few house slaves sit at the feet of the white masters. The Dems let blacks have token cabinet posts, how come it was Republicans who put blacks in jobs like Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Sec. State? Democrats talk, Republicans do.

Eddie Says It's Down To Mitt

Well, Edward T. Dog is rather unhappy that Fred is out.

He has surveyed the rest of the candidates and finds something missing in each.

What he finally decided was to gaze to the days of J. Edgar Hoover. Now in his day, he would put a lot of Irish Catholics and Mormons into the FBI. Both of those groups hated Commies so much that they were safer bets in the fight against the Soviets.

Cochise's Apache Princess isn't all that into politics but she is hoping that McCain shows up. Her teeth are right at crotch level.

In other news, Linda Lou's first Social Security chex showed up. Oh, the "X" is because there is a letter button on this computer *eyboard that just quit wor*ing. We are just about as bro*e as ever but we paid the property taxes and a mess of overdue bills. We still have some bills left but we're getting there. By March we should be all caught up.

Update: I switched keyboards to an old one we had around. Then I pulled the K key out and discovered the problem. I was clipping CAP's claws amd a clw tip hit the keyboard and slipped under the K key. I can now write anything I want about Robert Byrd (Dem KKK). Too bad I don't want to. Oh well, CAP's teeth are right at crotch level if HE shows up here, too.

Another Update: I ought to explain Eddie's thinking about Mitt. I'm not at all sure about that religion. It's seems rather outlandish to me, perhaps to others. After all, it may seem odd to walk through Nebraska with all your earthly possessions in a wheelbarrow but they sure did it.

But then most religions seem weird to outsiders, Mitt doesn't seem to bother anyone else with his religion and all during his time as Governor I never heard of him going after coffee drinkers or somebody enjoying a beer. Now the Democrats...

The main thing is that Mormons, being a minority religion, are used to enjoying their rights and seem to respect the rights of others. I have stopped in a couple small towns in Utah while traveling and even in a cafe run by Mormons I never had trouble getting a cup of coffee or Linda Lou her diet soda.

So, Eddie and I agree that, of all tie crowd running, Romney would do the least damage. Durn shame that we are forced into voting for least damaging but there you are.

Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, A Review

The title of the book is "That Boy Packs The Truest And Fastest Guns In The Territory". It is written by a friend and partner of Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, Eva Gillhouse. Perhaps you've heard of him, his picture is the mascot of the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Born in Hartford Connecticut in 1860 his family went west after the War of Northern Aggression, to Osage County, Kansas. It's hard to imagine, today, but back then there were millions of acres of prime farm and ranch land given free to veterans and, sometimes, plain farmers, or would-be farmers. Being from Kansas stock myself, I understand, many don't.

Frank's father was part of the local Vigilance Committee in a time when such were needed. Aside from the ill feelings left over from the Civil War, the Santa Fe trail was right there so there were the folks robbing the wagons and then the ne'er do wells that are always on the "highways".

Frank was eight years old when outlaws murdered his father.

This book is the desktop publishing type, the pages are the size of regular typing paper, although the paper seems fairly high quality, it's not that thin stuff that won't last. The book is written in that same flat, declarative style as the old Elmer Keith gun books, the modern thing of slopping emotions all over the page hadn't come in yet.

This book recounts the adventures of a young boy learning to hunt and shoot, his hunt for the men who killed his father and the death of those men.

It describes his lifelong friendship with Rolla Goodnight, the son of Col Charles Goodnight of Goodnight-Loving Trail fame and his adventures as a Deputy US Marshall, cattle detective and ranch hand.

Reading it I could feel the sweat and taste that red Oklahoma dust. "Pistol Pete" died in 1952.

If interested one should send a check for $25.02 to Jim Huebner,

4224 Center Gate Lane

Sarasota, Florida, 34223



Jim has a simple deal, write and date the check thirty days ahead. He promises to tear up the check if the reader returns the book within 30 days.



Now, here is what took me so long to write this review. The simple fact is that Pistol Pete was probably not a gunman at all. There are no mentions of the man in any contemporary literature. No newspaper articles, no mentions in diaries and letters, nothing. Now an old west gunman was a famous fellow. I could see it if only half or so of his gunfights had ever made the news, but none? I can even see, sort of, a conspiracy among the newsies of the day to keep quiet the deeds of a Deputy Marshall who was too young to legally take the job. But those deeds would have been mentioned in letters and diaries, the blogs of the day back then. Too many of these gunfights had Frank out drawing the villain.



Now I am a (very casual) student of the old west. The only times someone outdrew another was in the saloon gunfights and those were fairly rare. Back then, as now, wearing of guns in saloons was frowned upon. Now not everyone obeyed the rules about checking your iron but most did, if for no other reason than weight. Most townies that went armed carried smaller guns, those old British Bulldogs were popular. Cowboys and ranchers tended to carry heavier iron. A feller on the range might need to kill a cow critter, to this day the most dangerous animal in America is a barnyard bull. Or a cowboy might want to kill a horse, more than a few were dragged to death when their boot got hung in a stirrup. Now a minutes though about the geometry of a cowboy shooting a horse while being dragged shows that a lot of penetration would be needed. Hence the popularity of those old Colt .45s and .38 and .44 WCF revolvers.A close range hit with any of those and the bullet will penetrate to next Tuesday.



Now a townie, of course, had a different set of needs from a gun. A man isn't all that thick and back then any solid hit was fatal, eventually. Remember, no X-ray machines and no antibiotics.



So, the book is almost certainly false. Still, if anyone enjoys the old dime novel type western, it's worth the money.

CAP Has Her Birthday Party!

So yesterday was Cochise' Apache Princess first bithday. Odder than that, I remembered it. Well, Linda Lou had it on the calender. Anyhow a doggie birthday party was in order.

Now I have it on good authority that sweets aren't really good for dogs so I needed something different for a cake. How about corn meal muffins? With bacon and cheese? Dogs like bacon and cheese, I think I read that somewhere. So I fried up four slices of bacon and made a batch of muffin batter, the box kind. Jiffy. Oh and I made a box of Jiffy rasberry muffins for us, too. A pretty good cheap snack, one egg, one quarter cup of milk and a fifty cent box of muffin mix. Even better, I bought a bazillion Christmas cupcake and muffin cups for half price the day after Christmas, for half price.

Back to the dogs, though.I fried the bacon up, good and set it on the paper towels, mixed the muffin mix and then broke the bacon up amd stirred it into the mix, then grabbed a large handfull of sharp chedder shredded cheese and stirred it in, too. The two Pugs got caught in a cheese storm when grated cheese fell from the sky on their poor defenseless heads. They licked franticly to keep from being buried. They got away with it but will probably have nightmares for years.

So, in to the oven and fifteen minutes later, muffins, too hot to eat. I was going to frost them with liverwurst, actually Braunshweiger. I decided not to, this roll I got was a lot is real "hard". Trying to spread it would have been difficult, also I probably would have been killed trying to get down the steps.

So the eating part of the party lasted about five minutes, dogs are not much to savor every bite.
Now Eddie knows what to do with a mixing bowl.

So I finally got the muffins down the steps and the feeding frenzy, er, party began. We were unable to sing Happy Birthday, the German Shepherd seems to be crossed with Kanagroo.

She would jump up to try to get the muffins off the plate. Then she ate each muffin in two bites, The she tried to snatch what was left from the Pugs. Oh, my!

Then the party was over. The next party will be in celebration of McCain losing this next batch of primaries.

Snow In Baghdad

So we got snow in Baghdad, that has to be absolute proof of glow-ball warming. Any kind of weather at all is proof of glow-ball warming. Because there is a CONSENSUS among SCIENTISTS! Never mind that every thing they have predicted hasn't happened. Never mind that the ones screeching the loudest that I must change my life haven't changed their own. It's a consensus.

Speaking of snow in Baghdad, it seems that those Iranian EFP bombs are blowing up more often again. I wish I could visualise the terrain over there. Since about ten minutes after the invasion was over we've had nothing but trouble coming in over the borders from Iran and Syria and it seems that our entire policy was let the bad guys in, let them bring whatever they wanted with them, and then have most of our troops go out and be targets.

Now I am no great military strategist, I am a one hitch EM from forty years ago. Still, even I know how to set up an L shaped ambush. I do not understand why or how we let all these clowns into the country over there, I do not understand how they manage to smuggle this stuff in.

Are the borders over there so covered in jungle that the bad guys sneak in under the triple canopy? Are the borders all crowded cities where they just lose themselves in crowds? Or is the military forbidden to control those borders because the Washington politicians are afraid we'll then want our borders enforced?

There is something seriously wrong. We do not have much, if any, more time to get it right. I have supported our work over there since 2003, not because I trust Washington but because our troops keep reenlisting. If the military situation was as bad as the Daily Koz types say, Sgt. Hook, Greyhawk and AWTM's husband would all be civilians by now. Those folks aren't stupid and, even though they are all married men, can't ALL want to die. I knew my war was being lost because we were losing so many men after their second or third hitches, after the second hitch you're half way to the twenty year pension.

New Blog!

My big sister finally started a blog of her own. The blog is called Nothing Much. So far all she has is the traditional sucky first post. Somebody needs to get over there and explain to her that SHE got the brains in the family, I only got the cute little butt.
As usual, I can't seem to make the link work, the addy is Califnotes.blogspot.com.

Wolves, Cougars and People

The other day I got an e-mail asking for a light bullet load for a .30-06 from a feller up in British Columbia, which is one of those Yankee States north of Oklahoma, I believe. Anyhow he wanted a load that would take down wolves. Now we don't have any wolves down here in northeast Texas and so I asked him why he was mad at wolves. Well, it seems that they have been breeding heavily lately and they are starting to cause trouble.

Each individual wolf will take down seventeen to twenty three big game animals each year. In an area that derives a good part of it's income from big game hunting, that can become a problem, fast.

My corespondent did not wish to be public on this, he didn't say why I. I presume it's because of the Bambiists, I didn't ask. He did send me a news story, which I was unable to transfer here because I'm not very good with computers. A computer wizard can probably find the article on the Monday, Sept.4, 2007 issue of the Vancouver Sun. It seems that a couple of families were out with some ATVs, pulling young kids around on a toboggan when a couple of very skinny, hungry wolves showed up. Their dog, a Rottie Mix went and duked it out with the wolves who were trying to get to those kids. Well, one parent went off after his rifle, a Ruger 10-.22 if it matters, while another adult waded in with a shovel. The two wolves were driven off but they then followed these folks back to camp. The guy with the rifle managed to then shoot one of the wolves, they dragged the wolf back to their camp (or cabins?) and the next morning the wolf had been dragged off and partially eaten. They then managed to shoot the other half of this pair. With a belly full of wolf.

Now, I never have claimed to be the world's greatest authority on carnivores. I have no idea how many wolves it takes to make an area unsafe for people, nor any great idea on how many wolves an area can support before the big game gets difficult to find. (Not that big game is easy to find without wolves) Questions like that must be answered by someone smarter than me. I do know that down here in the lower 48 people are now being attacked, and sometimes killed, by Cougars, aka Mountain Lions, aka Catamounts.

Now when I was a boy lots of folks hunted Mountain Lions. We hardly ever killed them, unless we used dogs, but we killed enough of them that they avoided people. In my entire youth I saw two Mountain Lions in the wild, both times it was through binoculars, way too far for a shot, while we were examining country to see if we wanted to go try to find deer over there. Yet seeing Mountain Lion tracks was common. I would wager that lots more of those big cats saw me than I ever saw.

Those cats were afraid of people, though. They stayed out of our way because we killed enough of them to maintain that fear. Now those days are over. In many states it's illegal to pop a big cat. We are not losing a whole lot of people and it seems that most of the ones we do lose are Libs, but even so, I liked it better when the cats were afraid of us. We are losing a lot of pets.

I bring this up because we are reseeding some of the West with wolves. Okay, fine.Can someone besides the Bambiists figure out how many can live on a piece of range before the big game, livestock and people are threatened?

Candles and Bullet Lube

I was going through a few websites looking at the recipes and supplies for my next year's supply of bullet lube for my black powder cartridges and it occurred to me that all I would have to add would be wicks and scent and I could be making candles, too. Lord knows we throw away enough jars that I would never have to buy those.

The question is could I make a few candles for small presents and home use without becoming an aged, patchouli-stinking hippie?

To make bullet lube I add a few ingredients to beeswax, this year I will also experiment with soy wax. To find these things I look at candle supply companies. It seems that the very best candles are made from beeswax and soy wax. Now Linda Lou loves Lilacs and they do not grow down here. Every year she wants me to take her up to Topeka during Lilac season, we hardly ever make it although we may make it more often now that we are retired. So, why not buy some Lilac scented oil and some wicks when I make my next bullet lube material purchase? Then I can think of other scents if this works. Hmm. Do they make a black powder smoke scent? That would be the perfect gift for Contagion.

Borders

Can we please find someone to defeat Kay Bailey Hutchinson in the Primaries the next time she is up for election? It's time for her to go, after she killed the border fence. We elected her to the Senate in 2006, we gave a clear mandate that we want the border secure and she goes and pulls this.

Why did I bother to vote Republican? Our jobs are taken away by illegals, our people are killed on the roads by uninsured illegals, illegal immigrant gangs are making our cities unlivable and these creatures we send to Washington ignore us. What does it take? I do not care that upper middle class working women want cheap nannies. I do not care that the Chamber of Commerce types want cheap labor, you can hardly find a US citizen on a construction site anymore and housing costs go up while the quality of the homes goes down.

We have begged Washington to secure the borders, one of the constitutionally mandated duties of the Federal Government. Instead the Feds are messing around with mileage requirements for the auto fleet. Excuse me but I have read the Constitution. It is silent on automobile mileage but loud in it's requirements to defend America.

Can you Washington idiots please quit farting around and build the effing fence? Yes. Build the fence, we'll worry about what to do about the illegals already here when you stop the invasion. Build the fence!

Can someone in Washington put a bill up to build the fence and have it come up before the election and then we can vote against everyone who doesn't support it. Of course those who want the invasion to continue can support those who don't support the fence and we can then see what Americans really want.

I have supported Kay Bailey Hutchinson since she was a political rookie, it's over. It was disgusting, Kay. You KNEW the desires of Texas and America and you sided against us. I hope your legs grow together.

Christopher James

We finally got some pictures of Christopher James. These are from Thanksgiving, when he was three weeks old. He is a big strong boy at three weeks. I think I shall give him some railroad rails for his fifth birthday, he can have hours of fun tying them in knots.

The other boys are also growing nicely. Perhaps we can go see that crowd this coming Fall.

Happy New Year!

Since we don't drink anymore here our New Year celebrations have become somewhat more sedate, albeit easier to remember. This year I celebrated New Year's Eve by finally trying to cook (and eat) liver and onions, mashed potatoes and gravy.

I am pleased to report that soaking the liver in milk really works. Now the downside of the project was that I bought calf's liver from Wal Mart, the liver was sliced so thin that it kept tearing into smaller and smaller pieces at every step of the way, making the preparation somewhat difficult. The good news was that it tasted wonderful.

I started by cooking the onions in oil until they were mostly brown, they then sat on paper towels, draining the excess oil while I fried the liver. The liver tore so badly I didn't try to dredge it in flour. It tasted fine without it, though. Then I made gravy out of the milk I soaked the liver in, some flour and the oil and drippings from the skillet.

Then I ate and ate. And ate some more. All three dogs got some liver scraps, the pictures above are of Ming the Merciless getting (more than) her share. She got a couple of extra little pieces because Linda Lou was snapping pictures.

My next try will be with beef liver instead of calf, in hopes that it doesn't tear apart so easily, otherwise I'll have to shop somewhere besides Wally World for my liver.

Then at Midnight I threw out a few firecrackers and then fired six rounds of black powder shotgun shells into the ground so that I had the empty brass shells to reload with powder, shot and some cut-up pieces of sparkler. If I can make those work I should be an amazing sight at the Cowboy Actions Shoots this year. Yee-haw!

William Is Five Years Old Today

William turned five today but because of the work schedule the grandparents got together yesterday for cake and presents.

It won't be many more of these birthdays before his first .22.

We finally got some pictures of Christopher James, I was getting convinced the boy was born with three arms or an extra head, not so. He is a great big boy, though, I'll post some of those pictures and his other three brothers tomorrow, the newest baby in the family for the new year.

Christmas, 2007

So Linda Lou woke me up at five AM to drive up to Plano to watch the kids open presents. It was a special set of Christmas presents for William. His daddy had his Transformers from when he was a child and they were all giftwrapped for William.

We were glad to get home, there ought to be some kind of a law against requireing a retired guy to wake up at five AM.

The next day we got a big rainstorm and, as always happens, we lost the telephone and internet connection. It's back now. So now I get to try to figure out what is going on in Pakistan.

Merry Christmas!

We seem to be fresh out of angels for a Christmas Greeting so we are just trying to make do.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Eddie T. Dog Endorses Fred

I have been watching to campaign for the Republican nomination for President and have decided to go with Fred Thompson. I agree with everything he's put out. And besides, he's got a Bulldog or Pug face. Not that it matters much, by the time we vote here in Texas the nomination is pretty well decided.

Just who decided that Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina should have all that power, anyway, and can we fire them? Now I have nothing personally against those States but I do resent that their votes should be more important than mine.

The only gripe seen about Thompson seems to be that he is too lazy for winning the job, the same gripe about Ronald Reagan, if I remember correctly, and he did pretty well. I am not sure I believe anything about Thompson being lazy. We get that information from where? That's right, the lamestream media. Every blogger who mentions Thompson's "laziness" has also railed against the disgusting lack of accuracy and evenhandedness of the media. Yet they believe Fred's "laziness" as if it were spoken by a burning bush on a mountaintop. Hmmm.

I don't know about my second choice. I know that if McCain gets the nomination I'm staying home in November.

NothingTo Say

There is nothing wrong here at the poor farm, I just have nothing to say and no new grandchild or dog pictures.

Not that having nothing to say usually stops me but for now... Oh, if anyone cares it is only about six weeks until Linda Lou gets her first social security check, that's when our after tax income nearly doubles. Then I might have something to say.

Doggie Friday

The dogs have destroyed another piece of furniture, note the duct tape over the hole in the expensive leather recliner.

Eddie had a sweater for the cold, Pugs are not cold weather dogs. The "experts" say that Pugs are inside dogs, I wish they'd told Eddie that, he loves being out with his "little sister", C. A. P. Meanwhile Cochise' Apache Princess doesn't understand why her momma lets Ming and Eddie in the chair with her but won't let the youngest puppy up there. As you can plainly see, C. A. P. is just a little tiny puppy, born to snuggle in the chair with her momma or daddy.

We let Eddie out in the cold with his sweater on, he came in without it. I found it the next day, chewed up and useless. We had to get dogs. We couldn't get a watchgoldfish or a lap snake, no, we had to get dogs.

Omaha

So now it comes to Omaha. A "big city" as Nebraska goes, more crowded states would call it medium sized. I know nothing about Omaha, I drove through it and was told that it's against the law to eat while driving. A 19 year old kid with a rifle seems to have wanted to "go out in style". So he went to the gun free mall with a rifle and started blowing people away.

So now it begins. If we had no guns! If ordinary shoppers had guns! It's because Bush was there!

I grew up around guns. The most common thing in the world was to see a boy, or boys, on bikes with .22s, riding out to plink or hunt small game. Other times of the year it was fish poles or (usually single shot) shotguns. Kids in rural areas brought their guns to school and hunted their way home. High schools had rifle teams.

Nobody shot down crowds of people. What has changed? It isn't the guns, we had guns.Nor was it semi automatic weapons, we had those too. Find a copy of The American Rifleman from before the 1968 Gun Control Act went into effect and price those little M1 Carbines, with 30 round mags. Or M1 Garands. Available by mail with no records in most places. Nobody shot down crowds of people.

Today they'd call out the SWAT Teams if anyone saw three boys riding through town with rifles, and Animal Control because of the dog runnin' alongside. Back then, it was nothing and we didn't shoot crowds of people. Can we PLEASE stop yapping about guns, pro or con and look at what else has changed since I was a boy? We had guns, we didn't shoot crowds of people. Now too many of us do. The guns didn't change, something else did.

The destruction of the family? The ending of spanking? That self esteem nonsense the schools are pushing? The war against masculinity? The war against Christianity? Something is causing this and we are talking about guns.

Well the guns aren't going away. We could pass a law tomorrow making guns illegal, everywhere like in most of Britain. Anybody notice that violent crime, including gun crime, has gone up over there since they passed that law?

People ought to be able to do some Christmas shopping without being blown away. And after we look at that, my Momma used to go to the Dept. Store, leave me in the book section or the toy section, shop and then come get me. Nobody worried. As a matter of fact other parents did the same thing. How come that can't happen these days. Oh, now Linda Lou leaves me in the book section but you can bet that my daughter doesn't leave William. What has changed?

Update: 12/06/07 I must not have been as clear as I try to be. AWTM mentions, in comments, other mass murders in Nebraska. I know about Charlie Starkweather, heck I know about Killin' Jim Miller and Tom Horn, John Wesley Hardin and lots of others who ran up a very large butcher's bill back in the day.

They, however didn't run that bill up all at once. And THAT is different. Teresa, of Technicalities fame, says it's the 24 hour news cycle, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and the rest of them. I dunno, back in John Wesley Hardin's day we only had newspapers but John Wesley was certainly famous back then. Far more famous than this kid in Nebraska.

Teresa is partially right, though, these kids want to be famous. And yet I can't remember the names of those losers in Columbine, what kind of fame is that? I remember Lee Harvey Oswald, I do not know the name of that guy in the University of Texas tower. I know I could find it in a matter of minutes now and back before I had this box I would have had to go to the Public Library. Charles Whitman. I wonder if the DIs in Parris Island and San Diego still tell the Boots about Oswald and Whitman when they issue the rifles? By the way, Oswald did it, it wasn't even very good shooting. Oswald only qualified at the very bottom of the pile, a feller that had been a really good shot would have had three different bodies in the morgue in fewer seconds. But I digress.

There have been killers among us since Cain couldn't get along with his brother, Abel. But it was only in 1966 when we started having these all at once murders and, after Whitman, it was a long time until the next one.

Oh, and I blame AlGore for Omaha. If Algore would have kept his fat mouth shut about Glow-ball Worming it would have been hot enough up there in Omaha that the kid wouldn't have been able to hide that AK under his clothes. In a Texas summer it is hard to hide an S&W Chief's Special.

Dear Washington

Hello again, Washington, this is Peter from flyover country. You must not get out here much because I hardly ever hear you talk about anything that has any relationship at all to what is happening out here.

What on earth is this National Intelligence Estimate about Iran? Just exactly what do you mean when you say it is plausible but unlikely that they are working to get nukes? Plausible but unlikely? Looky here, I have grandchildren I would like to see grow up, plausible but unlikely. That means that if millions of Americans die you won't lose your job, right? There is a little something more important than your job.

Washington, have y'all seen the inside of a grocery store lately? Have you seen gas prices? Do you remember how this Gasahol stuff was going to make driving clean and affordable? Funny thing happened, the process of making the ethanol causes far more pollution than gasoline does. Taking all that corn out of the pipeline did more than kludge up the air and making that ethanol took more than all that water. Have you look at what a dozen eggs cost? Have you seen a steak that wasn't paid for by a lobbying firm?

Look we out here in flyover country know that we don't have the campaign contributions that the Agribusiness has and we don't really mind that farmers make a living. We remember, though, that farmers did pretty well feeding the world while the oil companies fuelled it. That worked very well for a lot of years. Now we know that you are used to having things all your way but no matter how many idiot bills you pass the oil companies aren't going to feed us and the farms ain't gonna fill the cars. How about you figure out that the money the agribusiness companies sent you is not going to make up for the votes you won't get. I am just waiting for the people who will rise up and say vote for me and farmers will farm and oil companies will drill. Alcohol will be found in beer and down at the fabled Tequila Mines of Cuervo. Please, get off the Air Force jets and the chauffeur driven cars and get into your own car, fill up the gas tank and go do a little grocery shopping. Do you remember how?

Washington, the minute someone figures out that to win an election all one has to do is run on secure borders, an energy policy that is based on what we have in this world and going to war rarely but once we're in, fighting to win, you are going to be looking for a job.

I can't wait. Love, Peter.

Foer Throws In The Towel.

So, it seems the editor of The New Republic gives up on the Beauchamp stories. A fourteen page attempt to save his own job and not one hint of an apology to the men and women whose honor was trampled.

I served, starting some forty-three years ago, during the days of the draft, during the days of uniformed drug use. Yet even then we liked children and dogs, even then we honored those who wore battle scars. Yes the guy that caught a large piece of scrap metal 'cross the cheeks of his butt got a lot of noise about that amazing scar but it was in good humor and God help someone who wasn't THERE say anything to him. Including some kid with the sand of Parris Island still in his boots.

I've read Patterico, Malkin and Bob Owens of Confederate Yankee. I am still surprised at the people bouncing up saying that we are the ones attacking a serving soldier. Beauchamp may well have straightened out and is now serving honorably. I hope so. But he certainly was not serving his country or the men and women of the US Armed Forces with those stories.

Honor still means something to those men and women. I hope Beauchamp has learned to hold his, Franklin Foer has not. Here is something I don't understand. The Franklin Foers of the world feel free to gratuitously insult the people they say are stupid and dangerous, the men and women of the United States Armed Forces but won't say a word against the people going around exploding themselves. The liberals like to prove their "courage" by insulting those sworn to defend them while hiding behind those they insult. The Libs call this speaking truth to power. Franklin Foer wouldn't know truth if it bit him on the ass.