We Are Still Earthboud

So I got up, wondering when The Rapture was going to be. Linda Lou, who is a pretty fair hand at being a Christian did not disappear. Then the power went out and we started to wonder, just a little, did some really good Christians hit the wires on their way up?

Turned out somebody cut a tree and it fell the wrong way. Spoiled my plan, I was going to write a nice post and then, kind of in the middle of a sentence, say something like the dog ca

Then just hit post and see if everybody thought I'd been raptured. Personally I think that old duck out in Californey is just a little senile and simply got his calculations almost right, only one letter off. So, today he was not talking to anyone in the media. It's because today was his day to be ruptured. We won't hear from him until he gets him a truss.

In other news, it was Armed Forces Day. Somewhere along in May was the forty-sixth anniversary of the landings at Chu Lai. I was three minutes behind the first wave in an LCM MK8. There was a Rifle Platoon and a big ol' M-48 Tank. The Army, of course, already had the M-60. I was supposed to go with the guys that made the first landings at Da Nang until they put me off the boat in the practice landings in Okinawa. I had picked up a nice case of pneumonia. Oh well, a week in the hospital and then about six-eight weeks in Okinawa, first on light duty, then regular but still pulling liberty on a regular basis. I'm not sure if it's still that way over there but, back then there were a lot of girls with low morals that just loved them some teenaged American Servicemen. I must confess, back then I placed a very high value on low morals in a woman.

That bout of Pneumonia changed my life. If I hadn't got sick I would have gone into Da Nang, instead I went into Chu Lai, not very far away but the duty was very different. We got a lot closer to the people.

You know, we Viet Nam Vets are getting as old as the WW1 Vets of my boyhood. There were days that I spent hours in the park listening to their stories. I learned a lot from those old men. I reckon the Internet is my generation's park.

Well, Linda Lou just managed to fall down again, this time she was able to work herself up into the chair and get off the floor without the poor guys from the Tawakoni South Volunteer Fire Department. I feel the effing nursing home breathing down my neck. Linda Lou takes enough pills at night to knock out a horse. Then a dog wakes her or something does and she feels, since she's awake (sort of) and it's been two hours, she must get up and pee. Then she falls back asleep walking, I think, and the next thing I know I'm on the phone with the dispatcher.

Well, at least this time she didn't break anything. I'm pretty sure she'll have another big ol' bruise, though. I swear, if that woman ever turns on me, the way she's always bruised from falling down and scratched by dufous dog claws I could spend my golden years behind bars.

Nothing I can say (Lord knows I tried) convinces her to just go back to sleep. Nothing I can say (Lord knows I've tried) convinces her to lay off drinking soda right up until her head hits the pillow. Then there is a bottle right there on the table next to her. I reckon it took a stubborn, mule headed woman to put up with me all these years but we're past too much stubborn.

I wonder if the nursing home will let me have my computer and books. It's too much to think they'll let me have my loading press, components and guns. I can see it now, talking to the manager of the prospective nursing home "Why yes, it's a nice place but I'm going to need a small, lockable and fireproof locker for my black and smokeless powder for loading my cowboy action and general shooting ammo. Oh, and a lockable gun rack, please.

Somehow I don't see myself playing well in the nursing home. Golden years my butt.

Just Thinkin'

So now the Feds think that the Unabomber, who probably started wanting to kill people because he always had to spell his name five times to people, might be the Tylenol poisoner. Seein' as how he's locked up can we go back to packaging that does not require a knife and pliers to get to the effin' product? Or are they just tryin' to clear the case? I hate to believe that but with the history of the FBI Labs being a mess, and various "scientist expert witnesses" being as crooked as that Lombardy Street in San Francisco, I just don't know. I do not understand DNA. I read a lot, I follow Instapundit and Althouse, in addition to a life experience so I can confidently say no jury will ever understand DNA. If a potential juror actual education and experience to understand DNA, one or the other sterling advocates of justice trying the case would use one of the peremptory challenges to get rid of her.

I don't know what to do about this. We have too many cases on record of these people and these outfits being biased away from the truth, for power, for a twisted sense of "justice", to put away "undesirables", for money from a wealthy defendant, or that matter in civil cases, plaintiff or plaintiff's lawyer.

I can understand a case of "we caught the guy at the scene with the victims all over, the chainsaw still in his hand, he was covered in blood...". Anything more scientifical than that is beyond me. And I'm supposed to sit on a jury.

So I was driving along today, after my first bout with the new physical terrorists and Hannity had Carville on, letting Carville talk. So, Carville thinks that after some primaries Romney will be the guy to go against Obama. I really hope he's wrong. I really dislike Carville, he has a voice made for roadside billboards and a face made for radio, as well as political ideas that will kill millions. Still, he knows ground politics and he's hoping the Washington Republicans do it to us again.

Romney as the nominee will guarantee that both the Tea Party types and the Evangelicals will either sit the election out or bolt to a third party. Bottom line, Romney means we lose, again. It may well mean that the big money guys on the coasts will be sitting around with a big headquarters and no voters. The Republicans are in real danger of going the way of the Whigs.

Dear big money guys: Please anoint someone that the voters will support. We've had decades of "it's his turn". It gave us Jimmy Carter. And then it gave us Bill Clinton. George H. W. Bush is a good man, a very good man. He was only elected the first time because the Donks ran a dork named Dukakis. Actually the only reason Bush won in '88 was that picture of the dork in the tank. Without that there would have been no opposition to the Iraq invasion of Kuwait and no fall of the Berlin Wall.

Then the "it's his turn crowd gave us Bob Dole, another good guy who would, or could never win a national election. Starting to get the picture, big money guys? Let me build on it to make sure. McCain. Now Romney isn't anything like McCain except that he is pure poison to the people that work the phone banks and walk the precincts. Now you big money guys think that since it's Obama you can win without those awful Tea Party types and those smelly Evangelicals. Please, please, l00k back on recent history. The Democrat base hates us and fears us. They will go all out, no matter who their nominee is. Sorry, our side's base has some standards. I can see you guys being willing to lose the odd, unimportant election here or there. Losing the country is a different matter. We are almost out of time for us to remain a constitutional republic. In my darker moments I think it's already too late. Sigh.

In a more immediate note I was fixing my navy bean soup and, as I was frying the quarter box of Wrights Bacon Ends and Pieces a thought crossed my mind...With all the laws being passed, do you think we could make it a felony to use the words "too much" and "bacon" in the same sentence?

Navy bean soup is probably the best thing ever to come out of the galley of a ship. I was slicing up the little bit of carrot and celery and getting ready for the humongous onion I was putting in when I started wondering about the sweet onion craze. Dear Georgia, I know you're proud of your sweet Vidalia onions, I even like them sometimes. Can you, please, though, make it a little easier to find the old fashioned onions for cooking? I go to the supermarket and it's sweet Vidalia over there, Texas sweet over here, damn it! I'm cooking soup and stew and (when I have a few buck) pot roast! I'll let you know when I want to make candy.

Anyhow, the soup is in the crockpot, and it'll be ready by Friday evening. Patsy, our neighbor is making cornbread from scratch and we should do some serious eating. Desert is apple pie. I like pie. If we decide the Republican Party is defunct, we could fight it out, the TEA Party and the I Like Pie Party. Winner gets to try to repair the damage these idiots are doing.

Anyhow, that's what I'm up to, and it's almost four AM so I should try to go to bed.

Bad Investment In Pima County Law Enforcement

Taxpayers pay a heck of a lot of money for law enforcement and, contrary to what many think, they usually get a fairly good deal. The bluesuits, deputies and state guys are head and shoulders above most of the rest of the world.

Sometimes, though, we get a bad return on our investment. We see a case in Tuscon, Arizona where it looks like the Sheriff's Department has just thrown away all the money that was supposed to train their SWAT Teams. Now Sheriff Dupnik, yeah, THAT Sheriff Dupnik, has shut down the information pretty well, unlike with Loughner awhile back, but we have another mass shooting. Only this time one man was killed, a man who served two tours in the sandbox for us. Seems this young father was sleeping when his wife woke him because she heard strange noises and saw men through the windows where they shouldn't have been.

Jose Guerena, former Corporal, United States Marine Corps did what a trained man would do, got his rifle, the civilian version of the M-16, the famous old AR-15 and told his wife to hide in the closet with their four year old son.

Seventy-one shots later Guerena lay dying with his rifle still on safe, unfired. As he lay dying the Sheriff's Dept would not allow an ambulance because of "the possibility of a barricaded suspect".

The whole idea of these Special Weapons and Tactics teams is that some LEOs in an organization get extra training. One of the most important, indeed one of the first parts of weapons training is fire discipline.

Jose Guerena may or may not have had drugs in his house. He wouldn't have been the first guy to go for the easy money, although considering that he was sleeping after working the graveyard shift at a Pima County mine I would need a lot of convincing. Nor would he be the first to ever self medicate for the pain brought by serving an only somewhat grateful nation. If there were any drugs in that house. We do not know.

What we do know is that Jose Guerena fired no rounds at Law Enforcement Officers. Law Enforcement Officers fired seventy-one rounds. At the time, Guerena had been convicted of no crimes. He still has not. He is still dead.

Why did those LEOs shoot? I read on Blackfive's site that one of the SWAT Team guys may have had a negligent discharge, in other words, some damned fool running around with his finger on the trigger. And then all fire discipline disappeared. Ohmygod! He's got a GUN! I heard a SHOT!!! BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!!!!! In other words, exactly what we pay big money to train these meatheads not to do.

It could even be worse than that, one of these LEOs could have seen Guerena and his rifle and just started shooting and then fire discipline went away and everyone else got into the act. The shame is we'll never know. The Blue Wall and the Khaki Curtain will see to it that the people who pay the bills will only get the properly massaged version of the troof.

I do not know Pima County as well as I do Maricopa County, our oldest lives in Phoenix. I do know that the whole state has pockets where an LEOs seeing a homeowner with a gun in his (or her) hands when hearing a noise. It's one of those things, there is a drill for it. There's no reason for loud noises just because an LEO sees a gun, even while serving a warrant.

Somebody screwed the pooch here. A husband and father, a veteran and a miner is dead. He died with the safety on. He didn't fire a shot. We sure deserve some answers. And the people in charge of the Pima County Sheriff's Department firearms training should lose their jobs. The people in that SWAT TEAM need to be reassigned to school crossing guard duty except that that wouldn't be fair to the children. Seventy-one rounds. News article says sixty hits. Folks, that is not trained officers work. That's panicky jerks with guns.

This is why I think it was a major mistake to move from revolvers to semiautos for police work. Yes, there might have been two times in history that more shots on tap might have saved the day for the good guys. But think of all the other times a bunch of half-trained clowns have emptied the magazine into a house with a mother and child inside. Chalk up one more.

I'm Not Dead, I Think.

It's like this: Linda Lou's physical therapy is taking up a lot of time, from getting ready for the bus, then waiting for the bus, then riding on the bus, then the deal with the physical terrorists. Then dressing in dry stuff, calling the bus, waiting for the bus, riding the bus, horsing that damned wheelchair up the ramp, then supper. I need a nap just thinking of it.

Nor does it help that my Neurologist has me on a new med that is supposed to do a better job of controlling my tremors. Well, I'm steady. Dizzy, hardly able to walk but steady. Plus it makes me drowsy while unable to really sleep. Hope that passes, I like the steadyness, though. It would be nice to be steady and not be sitting around drooling on myself, though.

On top of everything else we had a command performance up in the Dallas suburb to see Josiah graduate from preschool. They do graduation gowns and mortarboard hats and everything. Funny, though, none of the graduates could tell me their majors. I asked several. They couldn't even SAY microbiology, much less study it.

Afterwards we babysat while the kids went to an important parent teacher conference. The little kids napped, William wanted to do something. We ended up bicycling, God help me. I used to ride bikes, I mean I rode all over. Back then I had legs like tree trunks. Even Ann Althouse would have liked to see me in my cut off blue jeans back then. Today, not so much. I thought I'd have to get better to die.

Anyhow, the blog is going to have to just survive without me for a few more weeks. It should not be very much longer before Linda Lou can just go to physical therapy without me. Until then, I dunno. Talk among yourselves, maybe read a good book or try a new recipe or something. If I survive all this, I'll be back.

Good Job!

The regular reader, all couple of you might be surprised here but let me start by saying, "Good Job, Obama!" I am not sure just how he got the gonads to pull the trigger on the Bin Laden job, perhaps he borrowed Hillary's. Or Michelle's.

Then, of course, good job to the folks who gathered the Intel. The biggest props go to the men of Seal Team Six and the Special Ops Helo unit. These men must sleep in specially soundproof barracks, otherwise the clang of those big brass ones would wake everyone up every time any of them needs to get up to pee during the night.

Unlike some, I am pleased they took OBL's body out to an aircraft carrier and buried it at sea. Now when we capture one of these fanatics we do not need to imprison or execute them. Instead we can take them on one of those pilgrimages to OBL's grave and leave them there.

My hope is that we have a nice picture of OBL trying to shoot his AK from behind his human shield wife. Note to the brave jihadis: When you want to use your wife or child as a human shield you must practice a lot with them. The muzzle blast of your weapon will make them flinch, throwing your aim way off. The only way to resolve this is to practice with them enough to deafen them so that they won't flinch. With just a little luck the practice will also cause enough scar tissue from the hot gas of the muzzle flash to harden your wife or child against that pain. A further note to brave Jihadis: Fat girls. Marry fat girls to hide behind. Maybe they'll stand a better chance of stopping that bullet. After all, you can always find a sheep for your lovin'.

My only fear is that many will now think this fight is over. Please note that Germany kept fighting after Hitler ate his gun. Of course, by that time they didn't have much left with which to fight, unlike the Jihadis. Between the opium money and the oil, Islam has plenty of resources and lots of young men. In a society when wealthy men can have multiple wives the poorer men have, what, exactly? Lots of frustration.

The Overseas Military Contingency is far from over. It would be nice if the Dems do not cut the military to the bone again.

Update, 05/04/11: It sure would be nice if the powers that be could decide that our military and intelligence operations deserve a bit of secrecy. Osama has achieved room temperature. That is news we can use. I can stop eyeing every real tall Arab-lookin' dude. Still the guys in Special Ops like to be anonymous, for good reason. When they go out they leave their wives and kids. Nor do we need to know how they disposed of Osama's corpse. An aircraft mechanic from one of the squadrons, or maybe some guy or gal from the Engineering Dept. does not travel armed, nor are they particularly trained to ward off an angry Islamist.

While I am still pleased that OBL has been found, and offed, I can't help thinking that, if we could keep a secret anymore, we could have, perhaps run the op a little blacker, say with French helicopters, bought with fake IDs snatched OBL up, carried him to a secret location, say just outside of Resume Speed, Idaho, wrung every scrap of info out of him and then um, "find" him in a cave someplace. and then cap him.

Oh, and BTW, it should not have been vital for your hacks to lie. If Osama didn't have a gun and wasn't hiding behind his wife, fine. A large majority of Americans would have supported offing him if he were standing, without a stitch on the nude beach. You clowns watched the op on TV fer Heaven's sake! Why did y'all have to add "drama" one day just to walk it beck the next?

Physical Terrorists And Riding The Short Bus

Linda Lou has started outside physical therapy. And the Doc has her on "water therapy" which means she has to go a lot further than she otherwise would, the nearest PT place with one of those small pools is all the way to the county seat in Greenville. That's the bad news, if we just had to go to the little town of Quinlan it would be no problem, but we're out of gas, nor is the van at it's best these days.

So we're riding the little bus that the county has, actually several little buses. The county has this service (that I thought we'd never need) where they send a bus around for anyone below a certain income, and take them anywhere in the county. So, the good news is a trip to the physical terrorist (or, for that matter, the supermarket) is free to the rider. I am afraid to think of what it costs to the taxpayer.

The good news is that we get there, the bad news is that we have yet to get there on time. The bus has yet to find it's way there when they said it would, then it takes forever and a day to get the wheelchair up the lift and secured according to the rules, then they ride all around Lake Tawakonie and Robin's bard looking for other passengers who may or may actually be there, or ready when the bus gets there.

Then, of course, we must wait for the bus when we're ready to leave. The fun part, though, is between our finally arriving and when it's time to go. First Linda Lou puts on her shorts and T shirt, gets on the lift chair and they put her in the pool, she gets out of the chair and starts walking in (not on!) the water. After X number of walking laps they make her do some other exercises, they call me back in and we get her out of the water, in to the little bath and she gets dry and into fresh clothes. From there we're done, except for waiting for the bus for the ride home.

Eventually we'll be doing some dry land work, also, just not yet. Probably this week or the next. The goal is walking by summer, either with the walker or a cane. We all are pretty well reconciled that she will always need a little support. Oh well, with the cane she'll be able to wave it and holler stuff like "Get off the lawn!" real loud once in a while. If it's the walker, well she's got this fancy four wheeled walker with both a basket and a seat. I'm not quite sure how she's supposed to wave it and holler, though.

I haven't tried to take the laptop with me yet, maybe in a couple more weeks. Anyhow, between riding the short bus to school and then everything else, I'll be scarce 'round here. I'm thinking that in another month or so, all I'll have to do is help her on and off the bus here, and up and down the ramp.

I'll be working on the end of the story of The Three Guardsmen, when I finish that I'll think of someone else to discuss. There are a lot of really interesting men and women littering our history in this part of the country, on both sides of the law. Many who worked both sides their own selves. Between the public library and the Internet, research is a lot easier than when I was a kid.

This is not really how I intended to spend my retirement, we didn't really plan on having what was, a decade ago, a decent income become poverty. It's what we have, though. The travel we planned is gone. If only those idiots in Washington don't kill the Internet.

The Three Guardsmen

It was January the ninth, 1944 in Guthrie, Oklahoma when Chris Madsen, the fighting Dane died at 93. Madsen was the last of the horseback Marshals to shuffle off this vale of tears. One of The Three Guardsmen who virtually ended the reign of the outlaw gangs of Oklahoma he had a very checkered past.

Although he claimed service in the Danish Army and even the French Foreign Legion before he came to the US in 1876 the reality is that he served time in Danish prisons for begging, vagrancy, fraud and forgery. The Danish government paid his fare to the US, a common thing back then. Madsen was one of the few who made the best of this new chance. Joining the Army he served fifteen years in the Quartermaster Corps, rising quickly to Quartermaster Sergeant of the Fifth Cavalry Regiment during the fights after Custer's Big Mistake. He was courtmartialed and acquitted once and was awarded the Silver Star during the Indian Wars. He was discharged (because he wanted out, not thrown out) and left the Army in Oklahoma where he joined the US. Marshall's Service.

Henry Andrew "Heck" Thomas was a Georgia boy, born in 1850 his family were Confederates during the big bloodletting of 1861-1865 and Heck was a courier for his Uncle , the Colonel of the Thomas Regiment. Unhurt during the Civil War he joined the Atlanta Police at age 17, a feat perhaps made easier by the fact that his daddy was the Town Marshall. Wounded during one of the periodic race riots of the early post slavery era he eventually got married and moved to Galveston., Texas becoming a guard for the Texas Express Company, taking charge of the money shipments on the railroads. He managed to save one big shipment from a robbery by the then-infamous Sam Bass Gang by hiding it in an unlit stove and packing dummy packages in the safe. By the time the robbers realized the packages were fake, the train was gone. Wounded during this robbery and shootout Thomas left the railroad and ran for Chief of Police in Fort Worth. Losing, by a very narrow margin he became a detective for the Fort Worth Detective Association, a collection of private eyes and stock detectives. Stock detectives drew a fairly small salary, though better than the normal $30.00 a month and found of the cowboy, plus a bounty for every cattle rustler and horse thief killed or jailed.

Thomas got his big break when he killed the Lee brothers, James and Pink, rustlers that had plagued The Chickasaw Nation up in Indian Territory as well as north Texas. He then went to work for The Hanging Judge, Issac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas. This was the court that had jurisdiction over the Indian Nation.

Bill Tilghman was a Kansas farm boy who became a buffalo hunter and then a lawman. Starting as a Deputy Sheriff in Ford County, Kansas under William Barclay "Bat" Masterson. Later appointed City Marshall he left after a short time because he couldn't stand the politics. There was a constant tension between the two factions, one that wanted Dodge City to remain a cowtown and the other that preferred the slower and more staid future as a farming community.

Tilghman thought he was leaving law enforcement when he got involved with the Oklahoma Land Rush in 1889. Instead his career was only begun. Settling on a ranch in Guthrie, OK he started raising fine horseflesh. Then duty called. Serving as a Deputy (city) Marshall in Guthrie He again was an exemplary officer. Tilghman accepted a position as a Deputy US Marshal and served in that position until 1910 when he retired as was elected to the Oklahoma State Senate.

Something that is mostly forgotten these days is how the Indian Territory and, later, Oklahoma Territory was governed. It started with The Five Civilized Tribes. The Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes each had their own Nation, complete with legislature, laws and police. These police, or light horse, however, could not arrest a white man, for anything. Only the US Marshals could. And the nearest base of the US Marshal Service was Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The local tribes had no real use for the white man's laws. With the memory of the Trail of Tears still fresh, the Indians just couldn't find too much sympathy for the poor, beleaguered whites. As long as a bad guy left the Indians alone no one went out of their way to assist the white eyes. As too the outlaws, well let's just say that quite a few, who were too ugly to the Indians, disappeared. The frontier, of course, was a dangerous place with snakes and bears and suchlike. No redskin would ever hurt a white outlaw! So, the outlaws left the Indians alone and used Indian Territory as a base, raiding farms and ranches for livestock, and towns for banks, stores and, of course, trains.

It did not help that the Indian Territory kept shrinking and more and more tribes kept being put in to the shrinking Territory. Kansas and Nebraska were the first to be carved out. Then they Cheyenne and the Kiowa, as well as the dread Comanche of Texas were shoved into the western part of the ever shrinking Indian Territory.

This was the world of Heck Thomas. Working under Judge Issac Parker, "the hanging judge" he joined a group of very hard men. I seriously doubt that any group of LEOs in American history have been in a more hazardous job that the Deputy Marshals of that judicial district. The law was severe back then and prisons were bleak. The gallows waited for many more crimes than the softer laws of today. Some wonder, perhaps, of the victims of today, wondering where their justice is but, alas, that is another story.

Thomas had already been wounded twice, in the line of duty, and he became a pretty serious customer. A bad guy got one chance to surrender with him, and Heck Thomas was very quick to ventilate a criminal trying to resist. Thomas was a fair lawman but he had a couple of rules, the most important was that if a man was worth shooting he was worth killing. The other two, Madsen and Tilghman were somewhat gentler.

Eventually a US District Court opened in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory. This was toward the end of the horseback gangs. The Deputy US Marshal was chasing the Dalton Gang through the Territory. There were other lawmen on the trail but the bulldog was Heck Thomas. It was a long chase and Thomas never really caught up. He was so persistent that the Daltons tried for that one big score in Coffeyville, Kansas. Recognized while trying to rob two banks at once the robbers were in for a nasty surprise. The townspeople grabbed their shootin' irons and gave the Dalton Gang some of that Minnesota Nice that the James Gang got almost twenty years earlier in Northfield. Thomas got to Coffeyville in time to identify the bodies.

There were a couple of survivors of this gang, beside the Dalton brother that survived the shooting, Emmett who later claimed the "last big score" was so they could get far away from Thomas. Those survivors, led by "Wild Bill" Doolin became the Wild Bunch, one of the last big gangs. George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, aka Slaughter Kid, Charley Pierce, Oliver "Ol" Yantis, Wm. Marion "Bill" Dalton, who wasn't involved in the Dalton Gang in Oklahoma but joined Doolin. There was also Wm. "Tulsa Jack" Blake, Dan "Dynamite Dick" Clifton, Roy Daugherty, aka Arkansas Tom Jones, George "Red Buck" Waighman, Richard "Little Dick" West, Wm. F. "Little Bill" Raidler. Eleven members of the gang that formed in 1892. All died by the gun.

The first robbery for the Wild Bunch was in Ford County, Kansas. The Stillwater town Marshal recognized Ol Yantis from the descriptions and the posse tracked him down and killed him in a shootout. Perhaps not the best beginning for a criminal gang.

By this time, Thomas, Tilghman and Madsen had worked together long enough to both gain trust in each other, and friendship. All three had the raw courage to stand up in a fight and all three had complimentary skills. Bill, because of his time as a buffalo hunter Army Scout was an excellent tracker. Chris, probably because of his years as a Quartermaster Sergeant, was good at the constant reports that, even then, hounded lawmen. Heck, well he was the best shot and was just the man needed when there was killing to be done. (Not that the others were shrinking violets)

The Marshals got a line on the gang in the late summer of '93. They were holed up in a sort of owtlaw town called Ingalls. Thomas, Tilghman and Madsen wanted to slip in and try their luck but the new US Marshal for the District, E. D. Nix just knew the situation required a bigger posse. In what became known as The Battle of Ingalls three Deputies were killed, along with two civilians. One outlaw was wounded and captured.

After that debacle the Three Guardsmen (although nobody knew them by that name yet) were taken off other duties and assigned to the Wild Bunch full time.

The game was pretty much over by the time Bill Tilghman tracked Wild Bill Doolin to Eureka Springs, Arkansas where he had gone to take the waters for the arthritis in his foot caused by a bullet wound. Tilghman dressed up with the black coat and reversed collar of a preacher, sholved his gun under his jacket and walked right up to Doolin, placing him under arrest. Then he just marched him to the train station and off they went, back to Guthrie. without worrying about minor details like extradition papers, no less.

The story continues.

Government? We Have A Government?

Not that I make enough money to care but folks are talking about the impending government shutdown. Right at tax season. So, if the government is shut down, why should anybody pay taxes?

Seems that the left is busy stealing the Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. So, if the judges and their supporters do not care about the law, why should anyone else? The only reason laws work is because most everyone is willing to obey the law, even the laws they do not agree with. We have a history of idiots making laws without public support. See the laws about slavery and then, later, Jim Crow. See Prohibition. See the failure of The War On Drugs.

I am not real sure the left has thought Wisconsin through. Lawless governments breed lawless people. It's not just that more people break the laws, although they do, it's that no one trusts the law. So, people do not talk the the guys and gals investigating crimes. Instead of trusting that the law will deal with someone that has harmed you, you go hunting. And then they hunt you. So great granddaddy Hatfield shot great grand-uncle McCoy and the feud lasts for generations. Thirteen dead, officially. There were probably others. That was the most famous feud, there were many others in the sparsely populated areas, more in the cities. The bloodbaths in the cocaine wars made the Gunfight ant the vacant lot between Fry's boarding house and the OK Corral along with the Vendetta Ride look like a spat between preschoolers.

Again, this when the vast majority of Americans trust the courts and police. What happens when we don't? The people in Wisconsin who are trying to negate the rule of law, from the fleebaggers to the police unions to the courthouse types to the peole threatening Republican lawmakers to the insects infesting the Statehouse, do they want an entire state of OJ juries?

Monster Pot O' Chili, Beef and Beans.

There is not a whole lot going on here at the Poor Farm, I filled the crockpot with two pounds of beef, browned and drained, two pounds of Pinto Beans ad tomatoes, onions and spices, went to bed and woke up to a humongus pot' o' Chili and beans, plus a mess from fillin' the crockpot too full. Again. Oh well, if it weren't for that I'd never clean anything.

So, anyhow, I'm fed for a few days. Half a dozen corn tortillas, heated directly on the burnere gas stove and a big ol' bowl of chili and beans. Yum. I keep seeing the "Cili Purists" swearing that Chili has neither beans nor tomato. They are all white, though. The Mexicans I grew up with would put durned near anything into a pot of chili and beans. Leftover bacon or sausage from breakfast? Into the pot. Pot roast, chicken or cabrito? Into the pot. The folks I grew up with couldn't afford to be Chili Purists.

Tuesday is when we find our if Linda Lou can start putting a little weight on her foot. Cross yer fingers or something.

I am looking into a long post about the Three Guardsmen of Oklahoma Territory and then Oklahoma when it became a State. The Indian nations were "the last frontier" and there were several reasons that Oklahoma was pretty much the last place in the "lower 48" that had law and order. Anyhow, much of the reason that the wild gangs of the late 1880s to the roaring 20s left the robbing, raping and killing business was a group of lawmen who became known as The Three Guardsmen, Heck Thomas, Chris Madsen and Bill Tilghman. I'm almost done collecting information, about all that is left is trying to separate fact from fiction. And then trying to make it interesting.

Happy Birthday(s)

It was a bit over a hundred years ago when the Moro tribesmen revolted against the American troops occupying the Philippine Islands, taken from Spain after the Spanish American War of 1898. The fighting was nasty. The Moros would bind themselves up with wire so tight it deadened the pain nerves and charged from the jungle swinging those sharp Bolo swords so suddenly that the long bolt action rifles the troops carried were hampered. Worse, the Army had switched from the famous old Single Action Army revolver to a newer, double action revolver, unfortunately they went to a different cartridge, the miserable .38 Long Colt, a ctg. that is rotting away in well deserved obsolescence.

The geniuses that run the military have always gone from low ranking to high ranking over years and decades of service. By the time they make General they have long forgotten what it's like to lead a platoon through a close quarters fight. They start to think strategically and get odd ideads like how it takes four men out of the fight to care for a wounded man and how it takes more of an enemy's resources to care for a wounded man than it does to bury a dead man. That is fine, of course, when you are fighting a European draftee who doesn't care much who wins, he's still gonna be a conscript. Not so the Moros (who our sneaky Pete types in the Army's Special Forces and the Navy's SEAL Teams were still trying to stamp out, last I heard), who didn't stop trying to kill the infidels until they were down for the count.

The Army was in a quandry. The old Colt thumb busters were mostly gone, either flat wore out or sold for surplus, they bought a load of double action revolvers in .45 Colt with that newfangled smokeless powder giving the same ballistics as the old Cavalry load of a 230 grain bullet over 28-30 grains of Black. This was the load that defeated the Sioux and the Apache and it defeated the Moros, too. Still, the Generals weren't happy.

A brilliant American from Utah went to work, John Browning. By 1905 he had designed a semiautomatic handgun in .45 caliber and sent it up for testing. The emergency mostly over due to the Moros running low on young men willing to die fighting, the military took it's time and demanded some changes. They wanted another safety, a grip safety so the pistol could only be fired while being help properly and they wanted a bit more bullet weight, Browning had used 200 grains instead of 230, the Army wanted that 30 grains back. The cartridge was, of course, a lot shorter because smokeless powder is so much denser for the same power. The cartridge was also rimless for use in the pistol's stack magazine. As a matter of fact the base of John Browning's pistol is the same size as the military rifle of the day, the .30-06. A minor detail to the civilian, that one little detail saved thousands of dollars in tooling (in 1911 dollars) for the manufacture of cartridges in the arsenals, even more in the big build up for The War To End All Wars.

So the Model 1911 is 100 years old today. The old girl did her work in WW1. the Banana Wars, WW2, Korea and Viet Nam before the geniuses that ran the military retired her in the mid 1980s. Funny, though, the troops that actually use handguns to stay alive, the Special Ops people, all shoot handguns firing John Browning's .45ACP. Funny, just about everyone who can still carries the .45.

Today everybody and their mother in law makes a 1911. Even the Chinese make them, heck, even Smith and Wesson. I have always been a revolver man, I learned to shoot on a revolver and the big square grip in the 1911 tends to twist in my hand when shooting fast, one handed. I know it's been fashionable to shoot two handed for decades but sometimes that off hand might be busy. Still, if I were going to war again, I'd choose a 1911. In war if you need a handgun it's up close. In war if you need a handgun the chances are it will be muddy or dusty or sandy. Heck, in the Nam I saw trucks splashing mud and raising dust at the same time.

Anyhow, happy birthday, old girl. I suspect that gunnies will still carry you up untll they invent the ray gun.

In a slightly less momentous birthday I turned 64 yesterday. My birthday present was another ache.

Just Plain Tired

I haven't been posting here lately, I'm not mad at anyone (except those I'm always mad at), just tired. We had a spell of Linda Lou's meds getting out of whack and her falling down a lot. She was falling asleep while trying to transfer from the bed to the wheelchair. She also got to where she could hardly talk and when Linda Lou can't talk, er, shut up, Peter.

Anyhow, things are a little better but I'm still plumb worn out. I'll be back after I rest up a little. I do find it interesting that there are not mass demonstrations up already about Obama getting us into a war for oil for France. I would also like it if the "intelligence community" on which we spend hundreds of billions of dollars which we do not have, had some idea who these rebels we are supporting are. If, as some say, they are alQ and Muslim Brotherhood types, do the geniuses running our foreign policy think that they will suddenly change their minds and stop trying to kill us?

Allahu Ackbar, Followed By Shots Is A Clue, Mr. President.

Allahu Ackbar, followed by a flurry of shots into unarmed servicemen and women is a pretty fair clue that it is another expression of Muslim extremism. Well, unless you are a Democrat Pol, it seems. Somehow the Commander in Chief of the United State of America's entire military cannot seem to get through his thick head that he is responsible for the lives and health of every single one, from the lowest maggot on Parris Island to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Of course, I'm just a pore dumb redneck who thinks that as difficult a task it is to run for the Presidency, I would have thought that this sucker would have thought about just what that job is. In this particular case, America was wrong. We don't have a President, we have a guy thinks that big white house in Washington, DC is a party pad and a place to sleep after a punishing round of golf.

Meanwhile we have various wild-eyed Muslims killing Americans and no one in the Democrat Party dares to whisper the word Jihad. Even the leaders of the European nations have noticed that a certain percentage of Muslims do not play well with others, although they seem to be at a loss as to what to do about it. If we had only had an Abe Lincon here and a Charles Martel over there after 9/11 history would be far different.

For all his faults, George W. Bush was our Lincoln, and after a lot of fits and starts, his dream in the Middle East is coming true. If only Europe had followed his lead. Instead of a Charles Martel we got Jack Chirac and Putin. Even though their countries were, and are, under the same assault we are, those clowns decided to profit from the business of selling the Muslims the weapons they use to kill us, and them.

Meanwhile s premier unit for fighting gun crime has been letting more than a thousand rifles and handguns "walk" into Mexico, in hopes of catching the Mexican Mr. Big. Two of those guns was found after the firefight that killed Border Patrolman Terry. He was firing rounds from a bean bag gun while they answered with rifle fire. The score? Rifles one, bean bag, nothing.

It's funny, the Border Patrol used to be a gun fighting outfit. All through Prohibition the El Paso station had a gunfight every two or three days and The BP almost always won. Of course back then they used .351 Winchester self loading rifle and twelve gauge shotguns, not bean bags. I wonder did Obama tell Patrolman Terry's family about the kinder, gentler Border Patrol of the 21st Century.

Did Obama even notice the dead Border Patrol Officer? Serious quest. Obama certainly doesn't take his job too seriously. Instead of preserving and protecting the Constitution he seems to believe it is his job to tear it down. Him and his head of "The Justice Dept."

I'm not sure that anyone really cares why I haven't been posting but if anyone does, I had a medication change that has kind of made me stupid and lethargic while adjusting to the change. Things may be getting better.

Wisconsin (And Other States) It All Started With Jealosy

About the first government workers of manage to join into protective organizations were the police departments and fire depts., for good reason, the police and firemen were on the line before most others. The others came later.

In the days when political patronage reached far into the lower ranks of government workers those with a lick of sense realized the idiocy of firing patrol officers and detectives, not to mention firemen, with each new administration. After all, it takes some time to learn the streets and how to keep fire damage and loss of life to a minimum.

So the police and firemen formed "benevolent associations" which eventually became labor unions. Along came the bus drivers, sanitation workers and, eventually, teachers. After they too formed labor unions they wanted the same pay and retirement bennies that police and firemen got, forgetting some important differences. There is a REASON police and firemen get to retire early. The common retirement used to be half pay at twenty years, three quarters at thirty. I admit to not keeping up with big city policies or gains made in the last twenty or so years.

Policing and fighting fires are young men's games. A sanitation worker does not have to chase, then fight and, finally cuff the garbage before throwing it into the truck. A city bus driver can still drive the bus at age sixty.

There are only a limited number of jobs that can still be done by the older police and firefighters. This is not that those jobs are unimportant, they are simply not physical.

The trouble is, folks like the teacher's union bosses see that cops get to retire while relatively young so they fight the tame politicians that have been elected because of union money for a benefit that simply does not apply. A teacher can still teach later in life than a firefighter can work the nozzle of a two and a half inch fire line or a bluesuit can fight a two hundred and eighty pound PCP monster.

Too many decades of that jealousy has led us to what is going on in Wisconsin now, California and Illinois next.

My fear is that police and firefighters will lose that option of retiring early. We will then see sixty-two year old officers on street patrol. Fortunately I live where we can still shoot bad guys.

A Jot And A Tittle About Glenn Reynold's Infallible Genius

So I'm rooting around the Intertubez when I noticed Glenn Reynolds, the Infamous Puppyblender, lamenting that no one writes even a jot or a tittle about his infallible genius. Well, I have to admit I've never met an infallible genius but then I've never met Prof Reynolds. He must be purty durned smart, he's got this job that seems to pay pretty well, a real cutie of a wife, who is also pretty smart. He manages to find time to blog all day and into the night, nearly seven days a week. He managed to defeat The Alliance of Free Blogs, in spite of all the calumny and outright lies we told of him. Seems the only people dumb enough to believe our wild tales was Oscar Willis and the Daily Koz community.

After all that Reynolds just grew stronger. I almost tried to meet him, on our only trip through Knoxville but we had Captain Fatbob, The Black Pug of Doom with us so we didn't dare. And of course Reynolds won't come out here to Dogpatch, he has better sense than to come where the folks would say: "Law Perfesser? Get a rope! That should count as infallible genius. As a matter of fact that should be the first rule of geniusosity: Stay away from where they'd lynch you just for bein'. Hmm, the spell checker on this thing says geniusosity isn't a word. Is it geniustude? Nope, guess I'll just go down in history as someone who just invented two words, all in hope of a link.

Back to what I normally write about. Does anyone remember when and why Alcan Powders disappeared from the handloading scene? They had a lot of really good powders for the handgun and shotgun loader. They were really big when I was a kid, then sometime in the late '60s, or the '70s, they just went away. Anyhow it was either when I was still in the Service or shorty after, when I was involved in trying to build my life, and not so involved in handloading ammunition.

The Linda Lou front remains kind of messy. She is still is not allowed to put any weight on her bad leg and the right knee where she tore the anterior cruciate and a bunch of other parts whose names I disremember, back in '90 is still very sore and weak. She managed to fall again the other night, trying to get from her wheelchair to the couch. She was very low to the floor when she went down, thank the Lord but it still scared the foo out of me. Naturally I had to call the South Tawokoni Volunteer Fire Dept again. They're going to put a substation in our front lawn.

I do not really know, I suspect she just kind of fell asleep while trying to make the transfer, she takes her bedtime pills, including some pain, some sleeping and, I believe, some muscle relaxants, and then horses around until she's falling out before trying to go lay down. Anyhow a feller from the Volunteer Fire Dept drove the ambulance out, a great big husky guy and got her up and on the couch so she could sleep. Since then I've made her sleep in the recliner. It's higher and easier to transfer to and from. And I'm making her wait until she is absolutely ready to lie down before she takes her pills. Even fifteen years ago I could help her more. This getting old. Poo!

Only two doctor visits this week, the wound care specialist and her surgeon's physician assistant. And then Friday we go up to Plano to William's Blue and Gold Banquet. I'm praying this is the last of the long drives until payday. The next tank of gas comes on a credit card, on money we haven't earned yet.

Anyone who still believes that the Democrats are the party of the little people, please check the gas and grocery prices.

Comments Back, So I'll Comment On Some Things

People are noticing that both the Army and the FBI fell down on that Hassan case and let a bunch of unarmed soldiers die with more wounded. People are also wondering how our very expensive foreign "Intelligence" outfits missed Egypt. Um, could it be that political correctness does not work with law enforcement, the military and intelligence? Perhaps I could have shortened that to "political correctness does not work".

We had another six or seven inches of snow overnight. When the freeze started I got caught by surprise. I seldom check the weather, Linda Lou is mesmerized by it and checks it constantly so she tells me about it. I, OTH, look out the window before I need to go out and then dress. Well, Linda Lou fell down on the job and did not tell me we were getting cold into the 'teens. The pipes are frozen somewhere and we have no running water.

I shall trudge through the snow over to Patsy's and beg a few gallons, over and above our emergency drinking supply so I can flush toilets, water dogs, etc. When the cold only gets into the mid twenties I don't have to run water because our "pipes, actually PVC "hoses" run right next to the heat and air ducts under the house.

Anyhow, it's really pretty out there, I hate the idea of leaving footprints through it. If for no other reason that my feet will get cold. Anyhow, I really, REALLY, REALLY hope that my flexible "pipes" have enough stretch in them to not have burst. Won't know 'til the thaw. Fortunately, this ain't the frozen tundra where blogfaddah Harv lives so we will find out sooner than, say, June.

Later: I have trudged through the snow, twice, returning with four gallons of water each time. I should have done another trip but, to heck with it. Linda Lou's bedside commode and the toilet is cleaned out, there is a pot o' coffee brewin' and we still have a dozen bottles of drinking water.

Things are pretty nice in the modern days with electric lights, heat without having to chop and haul wood, running water and all. It's easy to forget.

I'm wondering things about modern life as I age. I have had some major disagreements with my (electronic) friend and sister in all but blood Cynthia. Cynthia, who writes better than I, plus understands computers and stuff better, disagrees with me about gay marriage and gays in the military, both of which I believe I am on the losing side. Time will tell which of us is right. Still, Cynthia's position is rooted in what she considers justice, mine is rooted in practicality. I am not against either thing out of anything but my conservatism. I do not wish to make big changes until I know the long term results of those changes. Gays in the military? Fine. Put one Army division, plus all the support troops with a like sized bunch of the other Services, into the gay-friendly mode. Let's see how those organisations far over ten years. I'm not sure exactly how to do the same with gay marriage but someone smart could figger it out.

Later: 2/08/11. I got tired of writing but shall finish torquing the rest of the world off with abortion. I believe the deplorable conditions in that Philly "clinic" and the apparent willingness of various Planned Parenthood offices to ignore the law and not report probable statuary rape cases and even assist in child prostitution rings. Life is either a precious gift (from our Creator) or it isn't. If it isn't, it's just a commodity with varying value. So, why are we acting surprised when some do not value that commodity the same way others do?

I am an equity feminist. I could not grow up to be my Mother's son without being an equity feminist. My Mother was a lot more skilled and competent than many, perhaps most, of the men promoted over her at the railroad. Yet "the rules" stopped her promotion. Yet when gender feminism came along, she ignored it. The kind of feminism that came along was a construct of soulless leftism, much of it was simply a way to get some gullible women to lie down with leftist men.

Why is abortion such a big industry? It's simple, a couple of generations of leftists has convinced a sizable percentage of the women of this country to lie down with men whom they have no desire to raise children. Of course there was the movement to create lots of men with whom no one would want to raise children. These at the same time have literally destroyed the family.

At the same time there is the myth that women were not valued, back in the day. That wife beating was common, that rape happened on a regular basis. Well, maybe. In Arabia or some faraway place. As recently as the 1950s rape carried the death penalty here. And in the 1950s people on death row did not die of old age while going through 98 rounds of appeals.

Commercially viable abortions are not because of rape. Nor are they because of failure of birth control or the unborn baby being deformed. Commercially viable abortion businesses are simply from enough women who have devalued themselves enough to lie down with those valueless men. Funny how those people laugh at those who still value themselves.

As to the idea that wifebeating was common back then, again, people still believed in punishment. Here is a thought experiment, it's 1895. Police are still rudimintary in the big cities, almost nonexistent in the countryside. People still believe in protecting themselves and punishing the wrongdoers. Now, imagine being a man and wanting to beat your wife for some minor infraction. That wife has a big iron skillet, butcher knives, the hatchet used to kill the chicken and access to the family shotgun. And you are going to beat this woman and then go to sleep next to her. Right. And just how do you plan on awakening?

Sorry, the women of yesteryear helped fend of Indian attacks and coyotes from the chicken coops. They helped stand off horse thieves and rustlers. Then came their daughters and granddaughters. Yesterday's women stood the great depression and we now think they let themselves be beaten? Worse, we think their men thought so little of them they they would beat them? That those men thought so little of themselves that they would set themselves in harness for a lifetime with someone of so little value?

Sorry, people who value themselves so little is recent. and it's on purpose. And it will destroy the last best hope of mankind if left to run amok.

The antidote is both very easy and very hard. It starts with believing that I have worth. That is easy. The hard part? I must live up to that worth. It continues with believing that you have worth, and treating you as if you do, while expecting that you live up to that worth.

This is why the self esteem craze that flowed through our "education system" a while back only got half the problem. Why, yes, it is important that kids feel good about themselves. What the "educators" forgot is that those kids must do something they can feel good about first. Why is our society heading down the tubes? Well it probably started when we became a nation of consumers, rather than producers. And it all started with the devaluing of humanity. And it will continue until humanity is valued.

Oh, if anyone cares, we got through with no pipe damage, the snow is gone and we are resupplied for the next storm which is due later today. We have milk, coffee, Linda Lou's soda, bacon, eggs, meat and canned goods, and the propane tank is over half full and the water is running enough to prevent a freeze in the pipes. Is it spring yet?

Comments Down, Thanks To Those Waterheads At JS-kit.

As anyone who has followed these ramblings of mine for more than a few paragraphs knows, I am the next best thing to computer illiterate. Blogfather Harv helped me a lot when I started this little Blog and he's been my main go-to guy for help ever since.

To Harvey's near infinite chagrin, he moved my comments from Blogspot's system to Haloscan. I don't recall why but he saw a major advantage of some kind. Well, that advantage is gone. Seems that Haloscan was sold to some miserable examples of corporate hacks, js-kit. Well, js-kit is holding my comments hostage. Unless I pay them money, no one (not registered?) can comment here and since I haven't paid them, I can't register.

Now I called them miserable examples of corporate hacks for good reason. Why should anyone with a total readership of some sixty to seventy views a day pay for the few comments? One would think even a corporate drone could figure out that there is no money to be found in little bitty blogs like mine. I suspect js-kit is much like the Underwear Gnomes of yesteryear. Tiny little blog-???-PROFIT! Really. How dumb is that? They must have majored in liberal arts at an Ivy League University to be that stupid.

Anyhow, when Harv gets the time he's going to bring back Blogspot's comment system. He says I will lose all of the comments under js-kit. I am not sure if this means that I will lose all of the Haloscan comments from before js-kit bought Haloscan, but, whatever. Harv mentioned in his note to me how sorry his is to have told so many folks to use Haloscan, back in the day. Well, he had no idea that Haloscan would be sold to folks that seem dumb enough to go out in the middle of a freeway and play marbles. At night. Wearin' asphalt colored clothes. Talk about dumber than a bag of hammers.

It occurs to me that I should make some apologies here to those that I have unfairly insulted. I hope that all Underwear Gnomes, waterheads , folks who play marbles in the middle of the freeway and bags of hammers will accept my apology. Liberal Arts majors from the Ivy Leagues? If anyone is reading this to you, sorry. As to the management of js-kit, I hope your legs grow together.

Egypt, A Tale Of Missed Opportunities.

We missed a lot of chances to have an actual representative republic in Egypt, starting back when Ike was President. Our best chance, of course, was back when we took Iraq with our most powerful Division stuck on the boats because of Turkish intransigence.

I am still convinced that once our guys took Baghdad, again with our most powerful single Division still on the sideline, we had a very tough spearhead poised to pierce any country in the area. To the heart of Muslim unrest? There was Iran. The "Intelligence" Agencies we pay billions for could probably tell us where to put each cruise missile to kill the Mad Mullahs and Imadinnerjacket, that little sawed off punk that loves to run his mouth. The sat. intel can tell us where every tank in their inventory is. Why is it that we didn't end that regime while we had the troops and air right there?

Or, perhaps we might have gone the other way and ended the funny idea of the House of Saud. Every Wahhabi teaching comes from there. We could have ended that nightmare in a matter of minutes with our Air Forces.

I am absolutely convinced that was the plan, put the most potent fighting force in the world right in the middle of Islam's madness and carve out the real madmen. Not so much the guys who strap on the Semtex overcoats but those who train and send them. We had the men and machines there, and the ruthless men to control them, Bush, Cheney (Happy birthday, Dick!) and Rumsfeld. Somehow, though, on the edge of victory, we lost our nerve. I suspect that Democrats had much to do with that.

So, now Egypt is probably going under. Would the Muslim Brotherhood still exist without the Mad Mullahs and the Wahhabi types? Iran's flag will fly a little higher, the house of Saud's a little lower. The folks running the countries outside the Mideast will be figuring on what happens to the Suez Canal and what happens to oil prices.

The chowderheads running the USA are going to be wondering what happens to the mostly service troops still in Iraq. meanwhile our Infantry, Armor and Artillery are off in a landlocked country with no convenient way to the sea. The country the supplies must come through is a nuclear armed hotbed of madmen.

Okay, we can fly our troops out of both those places but the equipment? It's bad enough that we have overused and under-replaced our equipment since about 2006 when the Donks took over the purse strings, how long will it take to replace the gear if the supply lines through Pakistan close? And this is what we are facing right now, the Muslim world is seeing an essential weakness in the leader of the west. The Muslim world is reacting.

Thank the Lord Israel has her nukes, she may well need them.

A Whole Polical Party In Charge Of Making The State Of The Union Worse.

I sure wish the constitutional requirement that the President make Congress aware of the state of the Union was still done as it was for the first hundred or so years of the Republic. The President would send a written letter to Congress. There is no guarantee but there is a chance there would be a little less horsesh, um, fertilizer involved.

I would like to propose a simple Constitutional Amendment. No elected official shall be allowed on television. Any messages must be delivered in writing by fax or e-mail to all known media outlets in the area of that government official's district.

That way we could all know about something important like if they declare war. Otherwise, how about if they want to be TV stars they go out to Hollywood.

I confess, I did not watch the speech, nor the response. I did not need to. I drive around, I see the vacant buildings where there used to be businesses. I see the vacant homes. I buy groceries, including cheaper and cheaper cuts of meat. It wasn't very long ago that my pension would buy me a couple-three nice thick porterhouse steaks a month as well as some of those thick cut pork chops. I do not need some idiot politicians telling me what a great job they are doing.

Hey, politicians! Maybe if you idiots stop subsidising ethanol poor folks could buy food. Oh and if you stop with the sugar tariffs we wouldn't have corn syrup in everything, speaking of why folks are fatter and more diabetic. I swear, it's almost impossible to buy, say canned fruit, that doesn't have corn syrup. Remember when it had sugar instead and we didn't need "relaxed fit" jeans by age thirty-five?

I don't know what we can do short of adding a "canning party to the TEA Party. We consumers will never be able to match the political donations of, say, Archer-Daniels. What we could do is pick a couple of things every election , early in the cycle and let concresscritters know that a vote for means we vote against. Why does a can of pears contain no sugar but both high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup? I realize that sugar helps keep bacteria from growing, Granny taught me that when she canned peaches and pears, cherries and grapes. She got her sugar from sugar, though. Meanwhile the price of meat is going through the roof because the corn that would be fed to steers is going into gas tanks. And folks screech about how the underground aquifers are going dry while no one talks about how much water it takes to make a gallon of ethanol.

Meanwhile the left is up in arms because Glen Beck is quoting some old lefty accurately. Um, Plivens, perhaps if you would not call for Greek style riots, you know, the ones where people were killed by molotov cocktails, Beck would not put your idiocies up on his chalkboard. This may seem strange to the left but the most of us do not want to be burnt up in riots. The left does not understand this, and they really don't understand why the ordinary citizens around have all the guns. How un-European!

Another visit to another doctor for Linda Lou today. This one up in a town called Addison. Addison is due north of central Dallas. We live a little north of due east of central Dallas. About sixty miles or so. I remember Addison from back in the mid '70s. The main thing back then was an airport for general aviation. Other than that there were a couple of factories and not much else. I remember there was a die casting plant where folks would make cast parts of zinc and aluminum. A few law enforcement agencies would throw their confiscated dope in the aluminum furnace. Wasn't nothin' left of it after than, molten aluminum is hot! Other than that, Addison had empty fields where the folks hunted birds. Not today. Buildings cheek by jowl. A lot of them up for rent, for some strange reason.

Anyhow, they changed Linda Lou's antibiotic because it was making her sick. I really wonder just how many doctors there are between our place outside of Dogpatch and Addison, particularly with gas fast approaching $3.00. I sometimes wonder just how long it is going to take this far-flung and ever increasing tribe of medics to manage a simple little thing like repair a couple of broken bones. It ain't rocket surgery. Place the bone ends together. Hold them in place. let them knit together. Eleven months and counting. Meanwhile, of all of the legions of medics involved, only one is into bone repair. All the rest seem to be in charge of mopping up the mistakes of the others. Sigh.

Scraps Of Not Much

Well, Linda Lou is getting a bit more confident getting in and out of the house, as long as the deck is dry. The visit with the Orthopedic Surgeon did not go as well as we would have liked, still no weight bearing on that foot. No weight until the wound on the bottom of her foot heals which may bring us into next year. The small wound on the top of her foot is healing nicely, the bottom, not so. The wound on the bottom of her foot is the one where the rod started coming out, which started this last round. So, the surgeon took that rod out and then, opened that wound up again after the last round of antibiotics and in went the next (we hope last) rod. So, now we wait. I'm pretty sure Linda Lou likes getting waited on hand and foot (especially foot!) but it's kind of a pain.

Bingo T. Pug is especially clingy since Linda Lou came home. I shall not mention that it's not easy to type with a Pug on my lap. The home care nurses are nice, they're coming by every day to change the dressing on Linda Lou's foot. Next week I think it's gonna be on me over the weekend.

That is some grisly news from the northeast, delivering live babies and "snipping" their spines with scissors. Not to mention the filth, the unlicensed people doing medical work, the various inspectors ignoring all of that. It's not really surprising, though. Once we lose sight of the simple fact that life is a gift from God, all sorts of monstrous things become possible. Not only did they not care about the babies, mothers died. Oh well, life is cheap there. Exactly what is the real difference between Jared Loughner and everyone who ran and enabled that "clinic"? Except that "clinic" ran up a bigger score.

I'm wondering why the civil rights crowd does not join us "Christianists" on this? All those minority women permanently harmed and not a peep out of the NAA(L)CP. Too bad we don't have a news media anymore. Seems there should be more than a few questions. Instead we get "it's not about abortion!!!!111!!!" from them. Excuse me for bein' a pore dumb redneck but if it happened in an abortion "clinic", by an abortion "doctor" and it was supposed to be supervised by the Board of Medical Inspectors, what is it about? What is it about the "news media"? Let's see, Major Hasan slaughters a slew of unarmed soldiers and the call goes out "don't jump to conclusions!" Loughner slaughters a bunch of people at an open air political rally and the call goes out "it's because of right wing hate speech". Now this and "it's not about abortion!" Marge Sanger would be proud. Not only are they slaughtering black babies, they are even killing some of the mothers and rendering others sterile for life. I swear, the modern Democratic Party beats the foo out of the Klu Klux Klan at it's most powerful. Of course, back then the KKK was simply the armed forces of the Donks. Today the blacks kill themselves. Sigh. Those who decry this are called racists in the upside down world we live in.

I wonder just how much of the "conservatives against Palin" movement out there is because of the way Palin attacked crooked Republicans, as well as Democrats. Just how much of the Palin hatred is because she just doesn't tolerate crooks. It's easy to dress this up in fancy language, but I bet there is a lot of fear in there. Among the bloggers and pundits, how much of the 'I'm not crooked but who knows what corners *my* favorite guy has cut?" is out there?

There is some question among the right about how come the left has such contempt for Palin, but only among those who do not recall the contempt with which the left had for Jerry Ford, George HW Bush, George W Bush, etc. Contempt, it's what the left does. See the abortion mill above.

I would have been more into the Ayn Rand/Atlas Shrugged crowd if it had not been for Eddie Willers. Remember Eddie? He was the main assistant to Dagny Taggert. While not quite bright enough to be a hero of the story, he was a staunch and steady subordinate. Maybe he couldn't think of the best solution, when told how to work that solution, there he was, giving his all. Remember the end of Taggert Transcontinental? The train stopped and Eddie, the faithful, left alone. Want to know why I'm not a Randian? It's right there. No loyalty down. Eddy would have stopped a bullet for Dagny, yet she abandoned him. Somehow this fits with that Gosnell story.

Well, back to waiting on Linda Lou.

Home

Well we got home in one piece. Linda Lou was kind of frightened by the prospect of pivoting and then sitting in the chair that was some six inches higher, it didn't help that she couldn't hardly move because the wood deck was damp. Still, I do believe the success was a confidence builder.

The next trick is getting her outside, this comes tomorrow as she has an appt. with her orthopod. Every day a new adventure. We are really hoping that this visit will be where he allows some weight on that leg.

Bingo T. Pug and Cochise Apache Princess are thrilled. Linda Lou, after looking at the house, not so much. Oh well.

A Life Writter By Mel Blanc

A couple quick medical updates, for those who my have a faint interest:

I am almost totally done with the active Shingles outbreak. Almost every single scab has come off, there haven't been any new sores develop. That's something. I saw my family practice Doc again. He was pleased with my progress and mentioned that I had the biggest case he's seen in a while. I do confess, it was rather gaudy.

I am still fighting what they call "Postherpectic Neuralgia". It is, I believe and hope, starting to ease. I mostly do not take the Tramadol now, a combination of Ibuprofen and Tylonal, plus my Gabapentin keeps it under control. Most of the time. Okay, sometimes. Once in a while? The pain, when it hits, is in four places on my right side, the elbow, the shoulder, front and back and my neck. Anyhow, I have an appointment with my Neuro Doc, maybe we can get this over with.

The big news is that Linda Lou comes home Tuesday! Well, actually, she doesn't come home, I have to go get her. So, I shall drive to Canada, er, Oklahoma, er, Allen and bring her home. Perhaps by the time I drive up and get her the driveway and grass will be dry enough so her wheelchair does not sink in the mud. Considering that they still haven't allowed her to put any weight on her bad leg, that would be nice. I must push her up the ramp in her wheelchair, get her to the step into the house, then she gets on her walker while I take the wheelchair in the house, push it right to the step. She turns around by hopping in the walker, sits down in the wheelchair and I pull her the rest of the way into the house.

This should be interesting. I'm pretty sure this scenario was written by Mel Blanc or, perhaps, Walter Lantz. I never claimed to be clairvoyant or anything but I foresee another visit from the South Tawokoni Volunteer Fire Dept. out to the poorfarm.

Dear Sheriff Dupnik

I am really wondering about those five times police were called because of Loughner's increasingly bizarre behavior at that community college. So far, all we are hearing from Clarence Dupnik, the chief law enforcement officer of Pima County has not said much except that somehow the Right and the immigration battle is responsible for this shooting.

It would be nice to know if, during any of those five times police were called to the campus to deal with Loughner, they ever took him to jail. If not, why not? Officers are not Psych experts, they are trained to notice gross mental problems. So, if they never took him to jail, doesn't that count as negligence?

If they did take him to jail, why didn't they ever take him for a Psych Evaluation? Had they taken him he should have been committed. If he had been committed he would not have been able to legally buy that Glock. It's also likely that if he had been committed her would not have been able to buy one outside the law. Few criminals want to get caught and so would not deal with a guy babbling irrationally.

Clarence, I know that the actual law enforcement side of your department is run by your Chief Deputy while you take care of the budget and the politics. Still, instead of looing so far afield, shouldn't you be looking just a little closer to home on this? Or, Clarence, are you making all this noise to deflect attention from your baliwick?

Nutcase Control Is What We Need.

In the wake of the murder of Federal Judge John Roll , nine year old Christina Taylor Green and four others, plus the attempted muder of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and a slew of others in Tuscon yesterday had little to do with guns. Yes, a gun was used and if only the nutcase had been limited to a knife the death toll would had been lower. Of course if the nutcase had used any of the dozens of easily followed explosive recipes available, the carnage could have been higher.

Now I am pretty solidly in the "against" column when it comes to shooting my political opponents. I will admit that there are more than a few who, if they should die of natural causes, I would joyously pee on their graves but actively killing them? Nope. That will have to wait until (and if) things get so bad it calls for rope and lamp posts. There are only a few that I wouldn't put a little something in my hands to help defend.

The trouble is that since the '70s, when a group of Federal Judges emptied out the insane asylums in the USA, we have been overrun by loonies. I'm sorry but I do not care about being politically correct. (Politically correct according to whom? Who gave that bunch the right to diced?) I will ignore the question of exactly when the Constitution was amended to give Federal Judges the right to decide the Nation's mental health policies for now. The Judges said let them out and into the (nonexistent) community bases programs.

Well, Congress was supposed (according to those judges) to put out some multiple of billion dollars to make those group homes, but didn't. Since no matter how hard they try, the judges cannot make the Congress spend money, they didn't. This led to our cities being inundated with random nutcases of all types.

A whole lot of folks have died over the decades since the Judges, in their exalted wisdom, emptied the asylums. Perhaps now, with a Congresswoman shot through the head and a Federal Judge killed, the powers that be can finally figure out that our cities should not, in fact, be crawling with nutcases.

I have called this shooter a nutcase. I may be wrong. Anyone who shoots a beautiful little girl like Christina Green may well not be a nutcase but, instead, be cursed with Demonic Possession.

Haven't Been Posting, Here's Why

I haven't written anything here in a while. I have a choice, being somewhat functional and in a whole lot of pain or being stupid from the pain pills. I am on a somewhat self limitation of taking the Tramadol only three times a day, I really do not wish to be strung out on these. So they wear off and I sit around moaning. Stupid Shingles.

It's hard to explain the pain. It's kind of like being stabbed, first in one spot, then in another, but not really. It's kind of like the worst toothache ever, first in one spot, then in another., but not really. It's kind of like a hot coal, first in one spot, then another, again, not really. If one can imagine a combination of those things, that's Shingles.

Meanwhile, Linda Lou is in yet another hospital, this one 'way up in Allen, Texas. Each hospital is further north than the last. I wonder are they trying to get my Kansas girl back home? Anyhow, this hospital specializes in rehab. She's supposed to be there about three weeks and then, I hope, home. Thing is, the surgeon who did this work does not want her to put any weight on that leg for six weeks after the surgery. That should be very close to the end of those three weeks. So, she's supposed to re-learn how to walk at this hospital but can't put any weight on that leg. Somehow I suspect that there will be still more hospital.

Lastly, Bingo T. Pug is all up to date with his shots and meds. Next comes Cochise' Apache Princess. Unless I find that new home for her. Trouble is, I cannot take her anywhere without having Linda Lou to drive. Oh well, this gives us a little time to pay down Care Credit a tad.

I'm Repentin'!

I had my follow up visit with my doctor about these Shingles. I'm not going to try to take and post pictures, just know that Doc Lopez was impressed, he hadn't seen many infections that large and gaudy.

Y'all remember when we were little kids and the preachers were always talkin' about that guy with the forked tail, pitchfork and burning hot coals? I'm here to tell you that he doesn't wait until we're dead. He's right there jabbing me on my right shoulder, front and back, my right arm and the right side of my back. The lucky thing is that it's not hit my face, people would run screaming.

I feel like I should have someone walking in front of me, carrying a lantern, ringing a bell and shouting "unclean, unclean!" What I forgot to ask the doc was how unsafe it is to go to the supermarket, etc. I dunno. I suspect it's only dangerous if one touches the sores, as if! What I do know is that I don't dare go see Linda Lou in the hospital until this heals.

Doc Lopez wants me to get a Shingles Vaccine as soon as I'm healed, why did he wait until I was already sick for that suggestion? I guess that's why the Texas Legislature specifically put hospitals and Doctor's Offices on the list of places we can't carry guns.

Anyhow, I'm almost done with the course of antiviral meds and then it's just waiting for this to heal, while hoping I don't get a secondary infection. Back to the Doc in about three weeks, which shows something about how long he expects me to be tied up. Merry Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Meanwhile, anyone know of any Demcocrat "Winter Solistice parties you can get me invites to? I'm feelin' real socialable and huggy!

I'm Ready To Re-roof The House.

Well, I went to the Doc yesterday. I kept telling everyone they needed to be in gloves and masks but nobody cared. I didn't see Doc Lopez, instead I saw Amy, the PA. She took one glance and said "Shingles."

I have 12 days to get rid of these so I can bring Linda Lou home.

Update: Linda Lou does not come home on the 28th. Instead, that's is when she goes to the rehab hospital.

Dear Justice Breyer

I'm trying to remember the oath you said when becoming a judge. I'm pretty sure it was much the same as the one I took back in 1964 except for maybe obey the Officers, etc. Funny how I had to preserve and defend the Constitution, there didn't seem to be very many copies of that in Viet Nam. You, though, have that as your daily job.

I'm trying to figure out what language you speak, Judge. You and the rest of those nineteen bazillion government drones, all claiming to owe allegiance to the Constitution of The United States of America. I really wish the Framers would have made a little test for anyone wanting to draw the governments dime and anyone failing would be out.

You, Judge, were on the national news about the Second Amendment. You say the right of the people to keep and bear arms only counts for the Militia. Judge, a lot of folks have been discharged from the military and the modern militia, the National Guard. Judge, when someone gets out of the Service, according to you, they are no longer part of "the people" What are they, Judge? If they are no longer people, Judge, what species are they?

Here are some questions for everyone, Judge, congresscritter, drone, President. What is an enumerated power? If the Constitution, which, I remind you, you swore an oath to preserve and protect, left an action or law out, why are you mucking around in it? Under what authority? Why, sir, should any citizen care what you think about something that the Constitution gives you no right to mess about in?

I notice that you, and the other Washington types are messing about with the First Amendment, also. Take religion, for instance. Okay, the Federal Government says we don't have a mandated state religion. Great. It also says that the Federal Government should butt out of "the free exercise thereof". Now I'm just a poor dumb redneck but that clause pretty clearly says that if someone wants to say a prayer before a football game it's none of your business.

Exactly how many laws make up "no law" Judge? You bozos are trying to regulate internet speech. Aside from being cheaper than buying a printing press, how is the internet different than a pamphlet? I do not have the power to force anyone to read my blog.So, who gave you the power to regulate it? Please point those words in the Constitution out to me. Funny, my copy is from 2004 but I read Instapundit every day. and Althouse, too. You'd think a couple of Law Professors would mention a Constitutional Amendment. Maybe it happened during my stroke, I lost about a month there.

I read where the plaintiffs in the suit about Obamacare went to a conservative judge and it made a difference in the outcome. And where other suits went to liberal judges and there was a different outcome than that. Sir, that is not right. The Constitution is written in plain 18th Century English. The Federalist Papers are also right there, written in the same language. Judge, if the outcome of a trial differs because of a judge, we don't have law. I'm not sure, persactly, what we do have but it ain't law.

You Washington types keep piling rule after rule where it says "Congress shall make no law". So, Judge, how many laws are "no law"? Now I'm just a pore dumb redneck but they taught me in school that Congress shall make no law" means it's not the Federal Government's business. There's that pesky Tenth Amendment saying stuff like if the Constitution doesn't give you that power it belongs to the States or to the People. Well, Judge, I'm one of those People, no matter what you might think. I did not cede my freedom to you or your ilk.

So, when are you going to be through? How many laws make up no law?If you do not care about the well defined limits of your power and keep sticking your long federal nose into things that are clearly none of your business, when will you be satisfied?

You know, Judge, we don't need anyone to translate the law. We need judges, and congressmen and Presidents to follow the law. If a law comes out written so confusingly that a Judge needs to interpret it, it needs to go back to Congress to be re written so that a high school sophomore can understand and follow it.

Judge, just who the Hell are you to put your prejudices in instead of the clearly written Constitution? Seriously, who do you think you are?

Strange Days

Something strange has happened to me. I look like the kid who cut school to go skinny dipping, the truant officer came along and I hid in a poison oak patch to hide. Since I haven't done that, I dunno why I have weeping blotches that itch and hurt. To the Doctor with me. I shall call for an appointment. Chicken Pox? I don't remember if I had that as a kid.

There is good news and bad news on the Linda Lou front. The good news is that she will be released from the hospital on the 28th of December. The bad news? I have to clean the house. Eep!

I am trying to figure out exactly what is going on with this Me-Chelle Obama "nutrition" power grab. I don't recall her running for any office and I am unsure of just how a lawyer, whose main job was sending poor people to community clinics in order to save her hospital money is particularly qualified to tell parents how to feed their children.

I am not sure if it's me or society that is really getting strange. Me-Chelle was rattling on about how children get half their daily calories at school. And how we can't leave it up to parents to see that kids get a decent diet. Excuse me? Why are kids getting half their calories at school? I never got half my calories at school. Breakfast at home, a bag lunch, from home, and supper, at home. Or at Mario or Charlie's house.

Pardon me, I'm going to put my hard man hat on a minute. If a parent cannot feed the kid, the kid belongs in an orphanage. If the parents cannot feed the kid, the parents are certain to be failing in the rest of parenting. We have so many different programs to make sure that poor kids (and not so poor) have food that there is simply no excuse for poor nutrition. Show me a child with poor nutrition in the United States today and I will show you a "parent" selling the food stamp card for dope money. I don't know exactly how to fix that but this four and a half billion dollar boondoggle ain't it.

One last comment about Me-Chelle and her "nutrition expert" gig. Sorry. Nancy Reagan was fine with her "just say no" campaign. She said no and it didn't cost the counrty any four and a half billion, either. Laura Bush and her childhood reading? Great, she was a trained school librarian. Me-chelle and nutrition. Have you noticed ththe backside on that woman? Mercy. Me-Chelle, you need a different cause.

Bingo and I saw Linda Lou today and that's the doings here at the Poorfarm.

Picked Up A Bad Case Of The Germs

Well, I have picked up a bad case of the creeping crud, not in my body, nor in Linda Lou's but in my computer. Seems I have several virus types and now I can't do anything. Payday I'll take it to the computer doctor for a system flush or whatever it is they do. Until then I'm working on my old computer which is like a six year old waiting for a promised Christmas present, in February.

Meanwhile, the pills the Vet gave Bingo for his flea allergy really worked. He's like a new dog. He loves not itching horribly on his back where he can't scratch. He still loves his ear scritches, though. It's nice being able to scritch his ears and not have him move to where I'm not scratching right above the root of his tail.Bingo and I are going to see Linda Lou tomorrow.

I don't often agree with Bill Clinton but I sure did when he told Obama "please go". It would be nice to have an honest Administration in, like Harding or U. S. Grant. It was a strange scene, wasn't it? It made me believe more that Obama only likes to be seen as President, rather than be President. He loves him the big jet, the White House staff catering to his every desire. What he doesn't like is the mind boggling amount of work involved. Poor feller. He's spent his whole life being told how special he is. He's never had a job where he had any responsibility. I wonder how different this guy's life would be if he'd worked his way through college, say in a machine shop?

It would have really been fun to be in that office with no corners when they brought in that first huge pile of papers and told him, this is yours, deal with it. The look on his face when he realised that there is no one else to sluff it off on would have been priceless.

One Doc Says One Thing, Another Doc Something Else

I cleaned out Linda Lou's room at the old hospital and said my thanks and goodbyes yesterday because Doc Buch, the surgeon, said she was through there. So, today, the other Docs sent er back to that hospital. As near as I can figure, those Docs want her to finish the six weeks of IV antibiotics. At this point neither I nor Linda Lou know if this is six weeks from the start of the last time, in mid November or a brand new six weeks.

So, Linda Lou is back in Triumph Hospital in Dallas. In the same room as a matter of fact. The difference is that they came and took her (their) little fridge and microwave and, of course, I brought all of her stuff home. I spent today doing laundry so I'll take the clean clothes back in the morning. It's strange. I ask these Docs for a straight answer. I do not expect anyone to tell me that Linda Lou will wake up twenty-five years old or anything, I just want to know exactly what to expect. Yet everyone tells me something different.

Update: In answer to the question about why Linda Lou is back in that hospital for the antibiotic regimen, well it's simple. They have something called a PICC line in her, it is a widget that foes in a vein in her arm all the way up to her shoulder (?). Three times a day they hang an antibiotic drip that runs in for around an hour. The rest of the time she reads, sleeps, watches Law and Order, SUV (them Yankee cops up there in Noo Yawk sure must have problems with the Suburbans and Lincoln Navigators bein' stole) and being lonesome.

This lonesome is not the fault of the staff there at Triumph. I think the staff there deserves a whole blog post, along with a little primer for folks who may someday be old and need long term hospital or nursing home care. Hint: it's all in how the patient and regular visitors treat the lower level staff, the nurses and aides, the receptionist, the custodians, etc. Treat those people right and you or your loved one will get that extra inch or care that makes all the difference. Otherwise, you'll get the correct care but without the smiles and, yes, love.

I'm Just Too Old To Sleep On Couches

I spent Sunday night trying to sleep on Dean and Stephanie's couch. I'm way too old for that, plus it's more of a love seat. The thing was just too short. Anyhow I got up at five thirty in he morning and drove to the hospital Linda Lou was in, she'd already been taken away. So I got to Medical City and after a little bit of wandering, found her.Along about noonish they came and took her to the surgical suite and after a while they wheeled her away and took me to the waiting room. I sat. And sat. And sat some more. Shortly after four the Doc came out.

Doc Buch told me that they found no infection at all in there so they went ahead and fixed her leg bones. He claims that her bones are kinda weak (so that's why they broke!) so he is not sure if this fix will hold but he's got everything put together. We'll see if it lasts.

So, no four to six weeks on more antibiotics while waiting for the repair. It seems that she should go to a rehab facility for just long enough for her to be able to get from the wheelchair to the bathroom, etc. Hopefully, home by Christmas.

Thank you for the prayers and good wishes.

Scattershooting While Wondering Whatever Happened To Killin' Jim Miller

Well, Linda Lou is going from the hospital she is in to Medical City, Dallas Monday morning, they will be going in to take out the last piece of metal in there and then, if there is infection found inside, plant more antibiotic beads, leave it with nothing holding the loose bones, close it up and send her back to Triumph Hospital for four to six weeks before the Final Solution. If there is no infection in there they will go for the fix. At any rate she will be back in one of those "boots". I swear, they ought to put her in a plaster walking cast like they did with me back in 1967.

I will go up there Sunday, spend some time with Linda Lou, then pretend I am a kid again and sleep on a couch so I can get there early enough to hold Linda Lou's hand on her way and be there when she comes out. Plus I'll see the three boys and Stephanie and Dean.

It's funny, I hardly ever get comments on my guns and shooting posts but I do get E-mails about them. I just got a nice letter from a feller who was given (!) a Winchester Model 71 in .348 Winchester. I once was given a rusted ol' .22, never a fine levergun. Sigh. Then I got an E-mail from the feller who runs Carolina Cast Bullets. He casts bullets in the Lee molds, the same kind I use for my smokeless loads. He casts in a hard alloy, which is the right alloy for most autoloading rounds and for hot loads in the magnum revolvers. He also casts a softer bullet, mainly for cowboy action shooters. If I was buying cast bullets I'd try his cowboy action bullets for any loads I was loading below say about 1200 feet per second, which is, of course, just about all revolver ammo.

Anyhow, during my conversations with Jerry, the feller that runs Carolina Cast Bullets it turns out that he is a vet from about the same time I wore Uncle's suit, a Navy guy who served on the Tin Cans. If the cold war had turned out differently, he would have been the one in more danger, not that the 'cans are all that safe anytime the cast off the lines and move away from the pier.

While we were writing back and forth I got the thought of why we veterans, as well as most serious Christians and observant Jews, seem to be happier than leftists. Seriously, have we ever seen a happy leftist? This deserves a lot more thought than I have time for now but I believe it's because most lefties are the center of their own worlds. The Armed Services teach us that there are far more important things than us as individuals. Christianity and Judaism teach the same thing. Well, except for that idiot new age type Christianity.

I need to think about this more, when I'm not spending all my time running back and forth about Linda Lou. Or, better yet, you smart readers discuss and I'll write something about the old west or guns or something.

Did I mention that I finally got Bingo T. Pug to the Vet for his basic yearly checkup? When Linda Lou fell in February we got behind on money some and Bingo and Miss Priss lost out on their heartworm pills. Well, I managed to get Bingo in and he is heartworm free, and I have a six month supply of his pills, plus some pills for his skin. Seems he developed a flea allergy and so we now have him on monthly flea pills. It was not cheap. Linda Lou says Bingo is worth it. Funny, by the time I'm done with this, I could have bought a new shotgun or a used lever action. Had to get dogs. Couldn't get a nice pet rock.

Killin' Jim Miller was also known as Deacon Jim. His preferred weapon was a shotgun, sometimes a rifle. He was a killer for hire, being paid anywhere from 150 to 2,000 bucks a kill. He is reputed to have killed Pat Garret, the Sheriff who gunned down Billy the Kid. Born in Arkansas he ranged and killed from there to Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma for sure, perhaps further. He was active in the sheep and fence wars of the turn of the 20th Century southwest.

He always wore a black broadcloth coat. A Sheriff Bud Frazer in Pecos found out why the long, black coat in a gunfight with Miller. Frazer got four shots into Miller's chest and one in his right arm. Miller, thanks to the steel plate under that coat walked away with only bruises from the chest hits. Miller later took Frazer's head off with a double charge of buckshot. Miller beat this, and other murder charges with some fancy lawyers and some artful perjury from friends. Along with a willingness to murder witnesses.

Miller eventually claimed that he killed fifty-one people, not counting Mexicans*. His last killing was in 1909 outside of Ada, Oklahoma. He dispatched a tough rancher and ex-lawman named Gus Bobbitt with his trademark shotgun. Later arrested in the Trinity River bottoms in Fort Worth, TX he was sure of his chances in court as there were no witness to the actual shooting. Gus Bobbitt, being a very popular fellow while he lived, had lots of friends in Ada. Some fifty of them broke into the jail and took Miller and three of the men who had hired him to kill Bobbitt out of that jail and to an abandoned livery stable and hanged them, tried and found guilty by Judge Lynch.

It is popular today to decry lynchings. People back then were somewhat more pragmatic. They had, in their midst, a man who had been tried for murder who had witnesses killed, even a judge died under mysterious circumstances. After that many trials, they took the matter to Judge lynch. Killin' Jim Miller's shotgun was finally quiet.

* Miller had an unusual hatred of Americans of Mexican descent. No one is sure exactly why. Prejudice was more open back then but it didn't usually run to bloodshed. In Miller's case it did. He may have shot them for sport. The West would have been better off had Miller hanged in 1870 or so.