Josiah's Birthday Party

Instead of being in Washington DC at the big rally, I had to take Linda Lou to our Grandon Josiah' birthday party. It was held at one of the MickeyD's Virus Palaces, otherwise known as a playland. I think it would have been quieter at the big shindig with Beck, Palin, etc. Just as a matter of curiosity, is it real smart to hold a big outdoor event in DC in late August? Shouldn't events like this be in , oh I dunno, Idaho in August and DC in mid April?

Anyhow, we got in the car and drove to the McD, only to discover that, after unloading Linda Lou and her walker, we were in the wrong one. Sigh. Thirty years ago I could have read that tiny sign. Of course, thirty years ago, no grandkids. So, we got back in the car and then finally drove to the right Bacteria Farm and there they were, five of ours and their friends.

The trouble with not being liberals is there aren't four, six or ten grandparents , two now adult kids and one grandchild. That is, of course, why we will eventually beat the left and why they are trying so hard to take over education, they don't have kids much so they try to steal ours. Anyway, there were about forty-one thousand kids between the ages of months old to tweens, none using "their indoor voices". MickeyD's Plague Palaces have no soundproofing.

I find it strange that only a few of the adults took refuge, temporarily in the main part of the place. I had to. Oddly, as deaf as I am, noise bothers me more than it did. Oh well, I shall not ponder the strange things that come with getting old. Otherwise I might start thinking about the things that should be limber are now stiff and vice versa. Sigh.

Anyhow, I would duck in for as long as I could stand it, taking pictures, and then retreat to a table in the "adult section", which is not the same as the adult section in a seedy bookstore in the tough part of town. Then, when the sound shockwaves slowed to a jangle I would take a deep breath, say a short prayer and head back into Germ Garden. This was much like when I was in the Service, every time I did something worth a big medal, no one was looking. I will say that every time I looked, Josiah was surrounded by girls. Well, he should be. Anyhow, here are the pictures. We might not have outnumbered the Beck confab, we did out noise them.

General Quarters, General Quarters! This Is No Drill! All Hands Man Your Battle Stations!

The Obama Administration seems to be totally suicidal. The EPA is now considering banning lead ammunition. Even dumber, they have opened comments on the scheme, comments closing on October 31. The election being November the second. Way to bring us bitter clingers to the polls!

I am trying to link the story Here. Lets see if this works. Ha! Seems like it did. My blog-fu is improving!

Anyhow, you should follow the directions and send a nice little note to the EPA on this. You should also call or write your Representative in Congress, plus both Senators.

Oddly I have read that when Congress allowed the EPA to lord it over lead, they specifically exempted ammunition, mainly for fear the military would end up on the short end, also because they remember '94, after the "assault weapons" ban. What, are you silly enough to think that it was all Newt and the Contract?

Okay, I understand that the upper ranks of this Administration (or is it a regime?) have little or no practical experience. Still, you would think that someone there would like a tiny bit of help from Congress. As the word trickles out about this jackass move, everyone ready to give up on Republicans will be enraged and energized. Does anyone in this regime know that when you go bear hunting you do not cover yourself in lard, fish and berries and then arm yourself only with a thin willow switch? Peabrains. Worse. Brains rattling around in their heads like a BB in a boxcar. Oh, and BBs have lead cores. Actually BB shot is usually all lead. For some strange reason, the BBs used in BB guns is slightly bigger than the size of BB shot for shotguns. I never really understood that. The only reason I can think of for that is so a proud owner of a Red Ryder BB gun can't buy a 25 pound bag of shot and be in business for a year or so. But, I digress.

And these people claim to be smart. Lord help me. Obama, if you don't pee on this fire right now, you can just "Say Good Night, Gracie".

It is up to us, the bitter clingers, to put a stop to this nonsense.

Update, 3:10 AM 8/29/10: Between the time I wrote the above and the time I got home from the midnight "birthday meeting" of the AA group where I sobered up all those years ago, the EPA says that it has rejected banning lead ammunition. Okay, good. We still need to keep an eye on 'em, though. I'll post something soon about the birthday meeting and my grandson Josiah's fourth birthday party soon.

Happy "Birthday" To Me.

It was 1985 when I woke up to my very last hangover (so far, anyway). I have been sober now for twenty-five years. I by no means did this alone. Without the loving help of a gracious and forgiving God I would never had a chance, and that is just the beginning. Although He is the most important.

My family, too was very important, I doubt I'd even be alive, much less sober and fairly happy, without my Linda Lou. The added "family" from AA was the last thing that made the difference.

The wonderful thing about AA is that almost never did an alcoholic recover from drunkenness before Bill W. and Dr. Bob sobered up in 1935 and wrote down what they did. That, I believe, is the key to AA's success. Before AA it was always some smart person looking down his nose at a drunk and saying "this is what you should do". Much like those idiots in Washington, DC, most of whom have never run a hot dog stand, trying to run American business from afar. We see how this is working. How about that Recovery Summer, Barry?

Bill W. and Dr. Bob did not do that. They sobered up. Then they wrote down what they did. In a way it's kind of depressing to stand in front of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and look out over the group. Experience has shown that more than half of the people will die as wet drunks. Those who do not recover are the ones too smart to follow directions.And it's really that simple. Those willing to follow some simple (not easy, simple) directions are the ones who recover.

I believe that it also takes a certain amount of stubbornness. We alcoholics say that, in order to recover, one must "hit bottom", have one's life get so awful that one is willing to make the effort to change. This is why trust fund kids and actors and famous athletes are so often train wrecks. A lot of money can insulate one from the damage. Anyhow, once one has hit bottom and started the recovery process it takes a peculiar combination of willingness to follow directions and enough stubbornness to keep on when things get hard. It also take the knowledge that there is always another bottom, always lower and worse than the one before.

I do not know that if anyone new in sobriety will ever read this. If one does I have a special message. Try to remember the pain. To recover I need to remember that pain and live with the knowledge that I don't ever have to feel that way again. That is one of the main reasons we keep going to meeting once we have a year or so sober, by the way. Humans are hard wired to forget our own pain. I usually prove this by noting all the women out there with two or more babies. Going to meetings, though, and seeing the newcomers struggling with trying to get, and stay, sober reminds us of our own pain.

Yes, the bad news is that half will fail. The good news, half will win. Todauy I am a winner. It's my twenty-fifth "birthday" Too bad my knees and back (and a few other parts which I shall not name.You're welcome.) do not believe I'm twenty-five.

Just Crazy Talk

Well I see that the news is not about the economy sinking like a lead canoe, nor is it about Congress looking like it will swing hard right after the election. It's not even about The President's polls reaching, in less than two years, numbers that look like what it took the media seven years to give George Bush.

No, the big news is that some one fifth to one quarter of the population thinks Barack Hussein Obama is Muslim.

Naturally, the media types say that this makes the population stupid. Sure. I mean, someone who called himself Barry until after college now calls himself Barack. Sure the guy had a Muslim father and, according to the rules of Islam, that makes him one too. Silly things like when he was in that school in Indonesia, the paperwork had him as a Muslim and that his stepfather was Muslim, why should anyone think any of that makes him a Muslim. That's just crazy talk.

Next some percentage of the population might think that someone named Francis Terrence O'Callahan might be Catholic. Just crazy talk.

In other odd news the New York Times had this editorial out about Tom DeLay finally being cleared of all federal charges. In it they comment that he was only cleared because lawmakers had not made his actions illegal. Well, duh. That has got to be one of the silliest thing I've ever seen. Well, yeah, NYT, and the only reason it's legal for you numb skulls to breathe air is the lawmakers haven't made it illegal for you to do so. No, New York Times, the reason DeLay has been cleared of federal charges is that he followed the laws as they were written. If the laws had been written differently he would have followed them as they were written then. Now they have not yet made it illegal to be a Republican, as much as the NYT would like that. Idiots.

I've been remiss in posting lately, I've been doing a little extra reading. In addition to my "regular" reading and the internet reading, I have just got a CD ROM from Handloader Magazine called The Art of Bullet Casting. This six hundred page tome on a CD-ROM is keeping me busy. I swear, though, some of it carries less knowledge than Joe Schmoe the handloader. Oh well, I am learning something, even though much of the "book" is about loading for cartridges I will never own, nor have I any interest in owning, even if I won the lottery. I doubt I'll win the lottery, too, considering that I don't buy tickets.

Anyhow, I'm around, just busy.

Barnaby Jones Pickles, RIP

I got online and, in addition to the current Washington regime trying to wreck the whole country I discovered heartbreak in the Texas Hill Country. Jenny the Bloggess lost her Pug, Barnaby Jones.

I doubt that Jenny and her lovely daughter Hailey has ever heard of me. I only hope that when Barnaby got to The Bridge that Captain Fatbob, The Black Pug of Doom and Ming the Merciless, our grumpy old lady Pug were there to greet him and show him where the special stash of treats is.

I hope that Jenny and her husband, Victor take their Hailey and get another dog soon. Yes, losing a dog is heartbreaking. I know. Yet, not having that little (or sometimes not so little) four footed bundle of absolute love and devotion is even more heartbreaking.

Goodbye, Barnaby Jones Pickles. I never met you in this life but, when I go I'll have a big bag of treats with me. Keep an eye on my dogs and follow them, I'll have a little something for you, too.

I see that, as usual, my Blog-fu is not good enough to link to that post. Just type in The Bloggess and you'll get there.

Build The Fence.

A couple of years back I put up a fence around my back yard. It was only a minor fence, able to keep our German shepherd dog in the back yard. Still, it was one day to dig the important holes and pour concrete around those posts, then another day to put up the other posts and stretch the goat wire. Viola! The fence was built. At no cost to the taxpayer. Well, the taxpayer provided my pension, which paid for the fence but, the pension would have come, anyhow.

Meanwhile, they just passed another six hundred million dollar border bill up there in Washington, on top of all the billions spent so far. and they still cannot build the fence. This bill is going to pay for some new Border Patrol agents and some drones. One would think they have enough drones in government.

I would like to take a look at the houses of all these Congresscritters. I would suspect that pretty much all of them have a durned fence. Yet they can't seem to manage a fence across our border.

Now I realize that there is somewhat more to a fence along the whole southern border (we'll get to the northern border next) is somewhat of a bigger deal than the fence that keeps Cochise Apache Princess from running out and getting shot or run over. Still, I built the fence according to my needs.

So, why can't this government, with it's trillion dollar deficits, build a big ol' fence? Every day some bunch of government types are prancing around telling us how smart they are, yet they cannot build a fence.

How about this election cycle we simply require everyone running for a federal post to declare whether or not they would commit to a fence along the border, to be completely finished by 2013. Then anti-tunneling by 2015. Then start on the northern border. This, because the border is longer, plus problems like snow, ice and mountains would take somewhat longer. Not to mention the Great Lakes. Still, almost every homeowner in the country has a fence. Seems like if we can do it, why can't the Federal Government.

Shouldn't we insist on a fence before we are willing to even discuss any kind of immigration reform? Isn't it time we put our foot down and insist that government listen to us?

Why I Am A Sort Of Birther

Every few days I still see a little blurb somewhere saying how much better we all, especially conservatives, would be if no one was a "birther". The sophisticated view is that only those with an IQ under 80 or so would like to see the un-redacted, complete birth certificate of Barry Obama.

Sorry, the birth certificate is only part of it. I wanted to know during the election, and still want to know, a whole lot about this man that is a secret. The man spent a whole slew of money in court getting judges to say we had no right to see this birth certificate. Why? My certified copy cost twenty dollars, I needed it when, a few decades ago, I lost my wallet. I had to get a new drivers license and for some reason I couldn't find my original BC. So, why did the man spend so much money to avoid showing a twenty dollar document? Next question: Whose money was it?

For that matter, should a person have to prove his qualifications for the job? Much was made of the "gentleman's C" grades that Bush got, mostly by people trying to say that Gore and Kerry are smart, yet Bush showed his transcripts. Why did Obama refuse?

How did Obama get to "Pockistan" at a time when the State Dept. had a travel advisory against Americans going there? How did he pay for the trip at a time when, according to his "autobiography" he could not afford a cab ride?

There are several other questions of this sort. The most important question is how, almost two years after the election, do we not have the answers to these. The New York times manages to publish top secret national security information but they can't even find out who paid for Obama's trip to Pakistan? No wonder the media is going broke.

Consent Of The Governed?

I believe we are heading for a real fight in the next few years. Our whole government and Constitution rest on the consent of the governed. In the short run, governing without the consent of a large number of the US population will lead to rapid changes in which political party has the majority on Congress and the Presidency.

Trouble is, neither Party seems to care about governing from the middle. George W. was close, if he had been satisfied to knock the Taliban out of the government of Afghanistan and had set the military loose to kill every single one of the clowns slipping over the borders in Iraq, with a stern warning to Damascus, Riyadh and Tehran that they would get some ugly results, care of the US Air Force, Navy and the redlegs of the artillery, repeated as necessary. He would have also had to remember the borders.

Bill Clinton, though hard left to his shrivelled black soul, governed more to the center once the Republicans took Congress although the Donks did everything they could to deny the voters their victory. Then, of course, the Republicans themselves did their very best to deny the voters their victory, governing not as center conservatives but as Democrat Lite. Meanwhile the Democrats do not govern as center left but as wild-eyed Bolsheviks.

So, neither Party in Washington is paying much attention to the voters, no matter the huge throngs at TEA Party events, nor minor details like that election in Missouri where the voters went against Obamacare by a 70-30 margin.

This, of course, does not mention the Me-chelle O trip to Spain with how many of her closest friends, along with enough Secret Service Agents to take down a rifle company. This is, what, her sixth vacation this summer? Democrats of course tell us all that as a private citizen Me-chelle can go anywhere she wants. Okay, fine. So, if she is a private citizen, let her pay for the Air Force jet and Secret Service. Oh, Peter, that's different. Well, no. Either she is a private citizen or a federal official. Now, Laura Bush had a staff of one. To Me-chelle's 21. This is an inbalance. If she is a private citizen, how come such a big staff? And who pays for this staff? Laura went on a number of state trips with her husband. You remember Laura's husband, the guy that gave up golf during the war. The guy the Democrats screeched about his many vacations to Crawford, Texas. Has anyone heard one word from a Democrat leader about this little jaunt? To a foreign country during a huge recession? Did they ever shut up during the Bush terms?

The Washington establishment didn't seem to notice that a Federal Judge could not find it constitutional for the Congress to demand that people buy a particular kind of health insurance. This is especially odd considering all the "rights" that Federal Judges have found, when there is no mention at all of these "rights" anywhere in the founding documents.

It would be really nice if our law schools would require a few simple reading comprehension classes to be a prerequisite to enter. This class could focus on a few simple phrases like "Congress shall make no law..." I can see it now, the pop quiz and the arguments over exactly how many laws are "no law". They could have other interesting phrases like "shall not be infringed".

Of course, if you want to see heads explode in the pre-law classes, try "The powers not delegated to to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to to the States, respectively, or to the people." Now, a person of medium-low intelligence, or better, would on reading this, know that this means that Congress and the Federal Courts, not to mention the Executive, should butt out.

This means, of course that the Feds have no right to come up with the Defense of Marriage Act. It also means that that Federal Judge out in California has no right to butt into the California initiative on gay and lesbian marriage. It seems that gay marriage is one of those emanations of a penumbra that only lawyers can find when reading the plain and simple English of the late 18th Century.

Now I have heard some pretty fair arguments on both sides of the gay marriage issue. What I haven't seen is where it's the business of the Federal Bench. What I do see is that since marriage is not mentioned in the Constitution at all, it's one of those issues left to the people or to the States, respectively.

What would work is if the States would arrest and try Federal officials for overstepping their bounds. I know that the unpleasantness of 1932-2010 told people, wrongly, that the people and the States have no power over the Feds.


It also occurs to me that if we reintroduced dueling by sword and pistol for lying about a politician, or for that matter, a voter, we would go a long way toward a restoration of government by the people. Seems simpler than pitchforks and torches.

Another idea: Any politician who breaks a promise made during his or her term is subject to a binding recall vote within sixty days. Then we wouldn't be messing with those "95% of you will not see your taxes raised one dime" business. True, election seasons would be a little more boring but, they'd be a lot more careful with those promises. And, if there was some kind of emergency where a promise had to be broken, we'd have the recall election where the Pol could explain. If there were a good enough reason, the majority of the voters would understand.

I wonder how different my late teens would have been with no "Ah weel nevah send Murken boahs to do the job that Asian boahs should do" from LBJ. Remember the election of '64? "And we ah at peace" And we weel stay at peace" Meanwhile, painting Goldwater as a warmonger. Now, y'all forgive me for being a poor lowly enlisted man during that time but from the promise of peace to the first landing at Da Nang was about five months, total. The election of '64 to the first landings at Chu Lai was six months. Now I am no great military strategist. Still, no one can ever convince me that we could have two seaborne invasions in six months, starting from plans for peace. It just takes too long to gather all that gear and all those men.

This is another thing that bothers me. Congress, since December eighth, 1941 has not actually declared war. Instead they keep "authorizing the use of military force". Then they start screeching that there hasn't been a declaration of war. Pardon me for bein' a pore dumb redneck but when the United States government sent be halfway around the world, made me wear funny clothes and carry a gun while people I'd never even met were trying their best to kill me, that was a war.

Can we please have a rule, something like the War Powers Act that requires Congress to agree to a certain wording where we either use the military to go in and kick ass and chew bubble gum or come home. Oh, and they're all out of bubble gum. Sixty day from the first boot on the ground is plenty of time to decide if what we are doing is worth the lives and health of our young men and women. If it isn't worth it, come home. If it is, then fight. Is that to much to ask of our politicians? Can we please stop with the using our young men and women to prove how tough a politician is? We have a whole slew of pols who voted for whatever it is we're doing. About a week later they started crying about how we shouldn't be there. New rules: Rule one. A binding vote on whether or not our troops should be in action. Rule two. Once they are in action, fight to win. Rule three. No crying if the enemies are hurt or killed. If you politicians don't want the bad guys killed, don't send the military. Send politicians. Rule four. Try to remember that those men and women in a combat zone are there because you sent them. Pretend that you are on their side.

Probably A Dumb Question...

Here is a little thing I don't quite understand. The Government Motors Volt will, it is alleged, run on electricity. Now this $41,000.00 car will not make electricity, it has a big battery that needs to be charged. So, instead of pulling up to a gas station it has to be plugged in and charged, right?

Please pardon me for bein' a pore dumb redneck but isn't half the country going through near crisis problems with not enough electricity being generated? Wasn't that a big part of why the last Gov. of California being recalled and poor old Ah-nold being elected?

So, I reckon I'm not quite smart enough for this. You buy a car with the passenger room and performance of a cheap compact, for a luxury/performance car price. Then you won't be able to take a vacation in it, any motel would throw you out if you hooked it up, plus it doesn't have the range to be able to go very far out on the freeways, anyhow.

Seeing as how we taxpayers are on the hook for this thing, shouldn't somebody have thought of this, already?

More Hoo-Rah From Breitbart And Jounolist

Before I get into Journolist and Breitbart, it seems that the National Enquirer has found two more women complaining about Algore and his Second Chakra. When I was a kid regular newspapers had news and the supermarket tabloids had fluff. Now it's the opposite. I reckon the Enquirer staff didn't go to Columbia School of Journalism.

The left is still doing it's best to make the Breitbart revelations all about this Sherrod woman, still. Unfortunately some on the right are jumping on that bandwagon. Let me repeat, it's not about Sherrod. I would suspect that Breitbart has some other tapes, with other people speaking at various NAA(L)CP functions. Suppose he has something like the NAA(L)CP wildly applauding Cynthia McKinny in one of her delusional diatribes against the Jooos!!!!111!!!!11 Should we then cry tears the size of horse droppings that she lost her job in Congress?

Anyhow, don't bet against Breirtbart, he's done this before and every time the left thought they'd finished him, up would pop another tape.

Meanwhile we read that the Journalists on Journolist want to shove conservative faces through plate glass windows. Not to be outdone, another wants to throw Michael Ledeen through a plate glass window. Please remember, these are the people fretting that the Tea Party types might get violent. Also remember that these are the people without a single callous on their hands.

This lefty bunch does not seem to really understand violence. They think they can casually wish it on anyone who dares disagree with them, not realizing how really ugly violence can be. Nor, it seems, do they realize that violence goes both ways.

We in the uneducated, NASCAR loving crowd are usually very careful about violence. We know, where the Journolist crowd doesn't seem to, when you open the door to violence you have no right to complain about what walks in.

There seems to be a new Listserve outfit already to replace Journolist. Fine. Have fun. Just remember a few things. First, the papers and TV stations, etc, you work for cannot stay in business insulting more than half the country.

Second, the reason people buy newspapers or watch news shows is to find out what is going on in the world. Once people find out you are hiding the whole story about anything, anything at all, they will have trouble believing you about anything, anything at all.

Third, about that violence you are so quick to throw out. Um, which side has all the guns? Which side sends their sons and daughters into the Armed Services? I would like to ask if you are sure, really sure, you want to ante up in this game?

Update: Speaking of these people on Journolist being flat out dimbulbs, how about that law professor who thinks that networks have licenses? Sorry, law prof, radio and TV stations have broadcast licenses, there is not, nor has there ever been a license to be a network. Idiot.

Breitbart, And Sherrod. Jourolist And The Daily Caller

Andrew Breitbart unloaded another video, this one of someone named Sherrod telling an NAA(L)CP convention how she sent a white farmer to a white lawyer, thinking that he should go to one of his own, this instead of giving him all the help her job with the Ag Dept had available. Not a peep of disapproval from the NAA(L)CP. Sherrod was forced to resign over this.

Now it seems that she later became friends with this farmer and somehow it all ended up okay. Fine, that's not the real story. The real story is how the NAA(L)CP had not one word against the obvious racism shown in the beginning of that story.

I do not know that Sherrod should actually have been forced to resign. I'm of the opinion that about sixty percent of non military government employees should be forced to resign but, that''s just me. It is interesting that the NAA(L)CP and the Democrats in power threw Sherrod over the side, without thinking about it. This, of course, is natural for Democrats. Think of what would have happened to Lewinsky if she hadn't have kept that souvenir blue dress. Or, think of Mary Jo Kopechne. Of all the lefties in the country, how could the left elevate Ted Kennedy to the post of Conscience of the Senate? Answer: The left does not care about hurting individual women. Instead they care about women as a group. If some are used, others killed, that's okay because it's all about groups. Too bad the groups are made of individuals but, as one famous leftist put it, you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs.

You know what would be nice? If the rank and file members of these various groups would finally figure out that the left is all about power of the "leaders".

Meanwhile, Breitbart gets to save his hundred thousand for something else as the Daily Caller has managed to get the Journolist materiel. First shot, some bigwig journalist named Ackerman coming up with the idea to just dump the raaaaacist charge on just anyone on the right. Think this is something new? Try back in the 2000 election when they wanted to charge poor George W. Bush with the same thing because he thought, and rightly so, that the three peckerwoods who killed James Byrd so horribly were charged, and convicted of murder. Funny, two death penalties and one life without parole and the NAA(L)CP thought that wasn't enough. Meanwhile, what, persactly, is the NAA(L)CP doing to help the black people in, say, Chicago who are afraid to go outside their homes (and not much safer inside) because of the mostly black criminals in their own neighborhoods. What does the NAA(L)CP do about that? Why they do everything they can to prevent locking up bad guys.

I'm pretty sure this is just the beginning, too. Pop some popcorn, the show is about to get fun. The left is going to cry about that awful internet, just as loudly as they cry about talk radio and Fox News. Which we see they also tried to torpedo. I have not had time to digest this newest information.

Funny, when I was a kid most towns had a liberal newspaper and a conservative newspaper. Still, most reporters got into the game because they were bright kids with a way with words and a healthy dose of curiosity.

This has changed. Today, from the looks of the messages on Journolist, they aren't real bright. They don't have much curiosity and they have no intention of telling us what is going on. Journalism today seems to be the way upper middle class families put the kids who are too stupid to run the family business out of the house. They all went to the good schools, though so they're better than the people who actually do something.

The .260 Remington, Remington Reinvents Sevleral Turn Of The 20th Century Cartridges

Right after The .308 Winchester/7.62 NATO cartridge was developed, wildcatters went crazy with it, just like every other "new" cartridge case. They didn't have quite so much with this one, though, with it's already fairly sharp shoulder and minimal body taper.

What the did discover was that it was the right length for short action bolt guns and certain lever actions such as the Savage 99. The next thing the factories and wildcatters discovered was that with the advances in powder technology, they could get the original ballistics of the .30-06 our of the .308. Naturally, those same advances have brought the .30-06 into what was the .300 H&H territory but, really, those original .30-06, now .308 velocities are good enough for 95% of the hunting in the lower 48. Fact is, with some of the new bullets like the Swift A-Frame I would gladly swat a Moose with a .308. If there were any Moose in Texas. Excuse me while I look out the window. Nope, no Moose.Guess we'll have beef or chicken tonight, but, I digress.

Wildcatters and then, much later, the factories started churning out cartridges based on the .308. among the first were the .243 Winchester and the .358 Winchester. Meanwhile the wildcatters dreamed up things like the .25 Souper.

Meanwhile the rifle makers started making a whole slew of rifles built around two action lengths, one for the 53mm .308 case and one for the 63mm .30-06 case. Meanwhile this left the 57mm case of the Mauser rounds kind of out in the cold. You could barely fit them into the short actions, with lighter bullets, but not the longer, heavier bullets. And the actions built around the 63 mm case of the .30-06 (and the short Magnums like the 7mm, the .338 Winchester Mag and the .300 Winchester Mag) needed to have shims in the magazines to work with those 57mm cases.

The .243 Winchester became a very popular round, it is one of the best all around varmint rounds we can find, especially now that we have the 55 and 60 grain bullets. Now I never wanted to pop anything bigger', a groundchuck I'd be happy with a .222, .223 or even a .220 Swift. With larger varmints like the coyote or the bigger cats (although the Bambiest city folks have decided the cats are nice tame critters and need to be protected. Sure, they live in town where the big cats aren't. So, naturally, they know more than those of us who like in the country. I gotta admit, I am really getting sick of these self styled intellectuals who become experts on things they have never seen up close.)

The .343 is, with it's heaviest bullets, also a deer cartridge. Where it fails, there is that it is often given to young or beginning hunters, figuring that the light recoil will work for them. Well, yes, except that the .243, even with it's heaviest bullets is a professional's rifle, when it comes to light and medium big game. There just isn't the horsepower to take the tricky shots where we need a lot of penetration. And there aren't that many beginning hunters who know how to pass those shots.

This brings me to today's cartridge, the .260 Remington. This shoots a 6.5 mm bullet, just like the famous old 6.5mm Mannlicher. There was also a 6.5mm Mauser, a 6.5 Swede, etc. Back between about the Spanish American War to sometime after the end of the War To End All Wars (how'd that work out?) folks were taking those long 160 grain round nosed bullets and swatting everything up to Elephant with them. Oddly, if one was a very careful and skilled shot, and Elephant or a Cape Buffalo would fall right over. Of course, if one was not a very careful and skilled shot one had a very good chance of becoming part of the landscape. It is usually a good idea to avoid being trampled by those big critters.

WDM "Karamojo" Bell slew lord only knows how many Tuskers as an Ivory hunter using both the 6.5 and the 7mm Mauser. Back then the drill was to get up close and put the pill right where it would put the lights out. The reason most folks like the big guns like the .416 Rigby and .470 Nitro Express is that a bullet from one of those, an inch or two off, will stun Jumbo long enough for the insurance shot. Those smaller rounds, nope. And few folks really understand how fast they can move.

Today there is little need for those long, heavy bullets. Back then, the only way to assure deep penetration was to use a heavy bullet and what we now call a low velocity, somewhere between 2100 fps and 2400 fps. The bullets before John Nosler's Partition had trouble staying together at speeds much faster than that. So, we knew the bullets would lose weight, so, the heavier bullets had more weight they could lose. Today we seldom need anything heavier than the 140 grain premium bullets and, for deer and speed goats, the better 120 grain bullets are fine.

Now the .260 will do everything the bigger cartridges of that same caliber of a hundred years ago will do, it operates at a higher pressure. It's working pressure is over ten thousand pounds higher than the old Swede and nearly 20,000 higher than the Mannlichler. This is in part because of the advances in riflemaking and metallurgy since those old cartridges were new and party because no one knows the abuses some of those old rifles were put through.

If I were hunting with a .260 I would use the 95 and 100 grain bullets to pop the odd varmint and the 120 grain bullets for the smaller deer and Antelope. For the larger Mule Deer and those monster Yankee Whitetails I've read about but never seen, the 140 grain. I would save those 160 grain Hornady round nosed soft points for hunting where there might be a chance of bear or a Wapiti. And the reality is, one of the premium 140 grains will do as well.

There is much to be said for using just one bullet weight for all the big game hunting with a .260. Take the 140 grain. Small Deer and Antelope, use a standard bullet, the Hornady Spire Point, The Speer Hot Core, something along that line. In factory ammunition the Remington Core Loct or Winchester Power Point. The critter gets a little tougher? Try the Nosler AccuBond or Partition. bigger yet? The Swift A-Frame or Banes Triple Shock.

If I were just starting off as a young hunter I'd look long and hard at the the cartridges built around the .308 case. I would start with the .260, I'd look at the 7-08 and the .308. Which of those three I chose would depend on what critters were on the menu. If my hunting were deer and antelope I'd choose the .260 or the 7-08. If Wapiti or Moose were a possibility I'd look toward the .308. More hunters have hampered themselves through too much gun, too much recoil and muzzle blast leading to not enough accuracy. With the .260 this is not a problem.

With the exception of the Grizzly Bear of the Rockies, there is no critter in the lower 48 that will not fall to a .260 bullet suited for the game. Still, when we go above Mule Deer the .260 becomes an expert's weapon. The hunter needs to know the anatomy of the game and be willing to pass up the shots at difficult angles.

There has been a saying about hunting "use enough gun". Too often this has lead to using too much gun.The heaviest cartridge 95 percent of us will ever really need is around the 7mm Magnum or .30-06. Most of that 95 percent can go lower, down to the .260 or 7-08 level. Or the .250 Savage or any of a few dozen rounds between the .250 Savage and the .30-06. Got Grandpa Olav's 6.5 Swede? Great Uncle Heinrich's 7mm Mauser? Assuming they're in good shape, you're good to hunt just about anything but the great bears. and, tell you the truth, I'm not mad at any of the great bears. Of course, I don't live where they do, so there is that. I suspect if I lived up in Alaska in Brown Bear country I'd probably want to scrag enough of them to where they were a little leery about coming up to the door to beg a cup of sugar. We quit doing that with Mountain Lion and now, every once in a while they'll tear up and even kill someone. Oh well, what is a human being compared to making an "intellectual" happy.

So, the Tea Party Is Racist?

The National Association for the Advancement of (liberal) Colored People has declared the Tea Parties racist. All of them? Including the Tea Party events that have wildly applauded certain Tea Party types with dark skin?

Meanwhile the NAA(l)CP had decided that Kenneth Gladney isn't black enough for their support. Or something.

So, let me get this straight in my poor old probably racist head. The NAA(l)CP had, as a keynote speaker, a woman whose job, before she became First Lady was to steer poor, uninsured and mostly minority patients away from her hospital. That, according to the left, is promoting minority well being. Yet the NAA(l)CP habitually promotes programs that harm poor Americans, including, perhaps especially black Americans.

I am not as young as many. One of the things I remember is the struggle during the mid to late 1960s of getting black Americans into the building trades. Today you can drive by any construction site, if you can find any, and not see a single black face. Why? Illegal immigrants. The Democrats champion illegal immigrants, so does the NAA(l)CP. They do not say how this helps black Americans. They merely say that to question this is racist.

Look, we know that no one in the Tea Party movement is perfect. We cannot walk on water. The Tea Party movement is not about making the country better for white folks or black or brown, but better for all folks. We cannot walk on water, we merely do not wish to live in the mud.

The Tea Party movement believes that everyone in the country is better off when there are jobs to be had. We believe the country is better off when the laws are the same for everyone, and there aren't so many laws that everyone is a criminal, unaware. We believe that people should be protected from criminals, yet stupid behavior should hurt. We believe that if the management of a company should run it into the ground, bankruptcy should follow, with the normal and lawful creditors having first chance at the pickings. No more of this business with going over the heads of bondholders and giving the carcass to the unions. Many ordinary people held pieces of those bonds in their retirement accounts and who is to say that the unions will suddenly lead Chrysler to solvency?

I happen to believe that the Tea Party movement is better for the health of poor Americans than the NAA(L)CP. I further challenge anyone, black, white, brown or some other odd shade that denotes a human skin, to go to the next Tea Party event. Just go, bring a big bottle of tea or water, they tend to have these events in warm weather. Don't come looking for a fight, come looking for a friend. I promise, no matter the shade of your skin, if you act friendly at all, you will find friends. You will find people who wants you to live better because the people at the Tea Parties want all of us to like better.

Meanwhile, everyone the NAA(L)CP supports wants the poor to live just a little poorer, the middle class to disappear and the rich to grow richer. they may not say this but look at the results of their policies.

Surprise Visit

We got a surprise yesterday, an old friend from my teenage and even preteen years was driving through and called. Mario was a casual friend from grade school, it wasn't until Jr. High (now called Middle School for some odd reason) that we really formed a bond.

We lost track of each other about in our mid twenties and we hadn't seen each other until after my mother died. At any rate he was driving from Vicksburg on his way home to the Sacramento area of California and stopped to visit and make use of our air conditioned couch rather than sleep in his van in the north Texas summer.

The visit was far too short, although just seeing my old pal may have made me feel I was 16 again, we couldn't stay up like we used to. So, I fed us some of the Pioneer Woman's comfort meatballs over garlic-cheddar mashed potatoes and we talked until we retired early at about two AM. The days of driving all day after thirty minutes of sleep seem to be over.

It's kind of strange, I turned out the way I did, Mario is a semi-heavy in Peace Action and gets disturbed when I casually mention that the greatest guarantee of a peaceful world is a strong United States military. Oh well. For a peacenik, my old pal still loves his guns so I sent him away with a hundred and six rounds of .357 ammo. He has a Brazilian Taurus copy of the S&W Model 19.

Then it was daylight and after a few minutes of being in a total daze (instead of my normal semi-daze) I fixed a couple of "cans" of Pillsberry Honey Butter biscuits and then, after a cup of coffee, filling of his road cup, my boyhood friend was gone. For a little bit I was sixteen again.

Tree The Town And Other Old West Myths From Hollywood

I do not know why I can hear and understand old movies and television but not new stuff. I can understand old Gunsmokes but not NCIS. Same with movies. It's something to do with modern sound tracks. Still, I'm seeing a lot of old westerns and western movies.

A few things that annoy me are some of the really silly myths that Hollywood has put out about the old west. One of the recurrent things about Hollywood westerns is a group of baddies taking over the town and working their nefarious way, either in a short robbery or a long term sort of thing. Bear in mind, the time we are discussing is from the end of the Civil War until the end of the Indian Wars, from 1865 to 1900, give or take.

The reality is different. While there were some towns that had a less than sterling reputation for being law abiding, the regular towns in the West were pretty tough places. Face it, after the Civil War the cities and towns were full of veterans. Add the Buffalo hunters, the Indian fighters and the all around tough guys (and women). Very few households were without guns. Those folks were ready to use them, too. Ask the James-Younger Gang. Seems they got the idea to go up to the peaceful farming town of Northfield, Minnesota and rob the bank.

There were the two James brothers, Frank and Jesse, the three Younger brothers, Cole, Bob and Jim, Charlie Pitts, Clell Miller and William Stiles. Stiles and Miller died in the streets of Northfield. Pitts was killed in the gunfight where all three Younger brothers were captured, only Frank and Jesse escaped. Some say there was a ninth member of the gang there, if so, no one ever discovered his name. Given the rather rough forms of questioning prisoners back in 1876, I do not believe there was a ninth gang member there. The town was not treed. It may have been the most fun those farmers and merchants had since the end of the Sioux Wars up there and coming home from The War of Northern Aggression.

Consider another famous bunch of western outlaws, the Dalton Gang. The Dalton brothers started out as lawmen. Frank, a Deputy US Marshall out of Fort Smith, home of Judge Parker, the "hangin' judge", was killed in a gun battle, trying to bring in the Smith-Dixon Gang. The lawing business wasn't for the other brothers, Grat and Bob were Deputy Marshalls, as well as having other law enforcement jobs while Emmett mostly worked as a cowboy.

They eventually went to the other side of the law, unless they were crooked from the beginning. That line of work has an unfortunate history of this. Anyhow, after some time of train robbing and other nefarious deeds, they got the bright idea of going to Coffeeville, Kansas and robbing two banks at once. It was October 5, 1892 when Bob, Grat and Emmett, joined by Bill Power and Dick Broadwell rode into town and tried to rob the two banks that were pretty much accross the street from each other.

Emmett survived his wounds and went to prison, later pardoned, he spent his remaining years in California. The other four? That's their picture at the top. I suspect if more criminals had their dead bodies put on display like that, our society would be a more peaceable place.

There is simply no record of a town being held by outlaws. Well, except modern Chicago and some other places run by Democrats, that is another story, though.

Another myth is the high murder rate in the old west. How many times have we heard "Dodge City" if someone mentioned that it might be a good idea to allow citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights? If only. Dodge City had fifteen homicides between 1876 and 1885. These were almost entirely among the criminal types. Then, as now, stay away from criminals and avoid bars and you have a very good chance of dying of old age.

In the movies we always see everyone carrying big ol' Colt Single Action Armies in the big calibers. Truth is, there were not all that many people going about their business wearing a big revolver. To begin with, such guns are heavy. Before the development of X-Rays and antibiotics, most folks didn't need a big cartridge, anyhow. Face it, back then a .32 or .38 S&W in the boiler room was fatal, it just took time. Then, as now, most defensive use of a firearm involved pulling and pointing, not shooting.

The Army and lawmen liked the old thumb buster. Primarily because if one had to shoot at a horseman one aimed at the biggest target, the horse. Plus, western lawmen did not often carry nightsticks, instead "buffaloing" the bad guy, whopping 'em upside the head with the revolver. At any rate, to cause a horse wreck with a handgun, one needed deep penetration, that the .45 colt and .44-40 had in spades. The civilian? Not so much. One of the more popular guns was the Remington .41 Rimfire, a two shot derringer, note the double "r". The original deringer was a one shot muzzle loading gun, John Wilkes booth used one of those to end the political career of Abe Lincoln.

British Bulldog revolvers were also popular but, really, the most popular arms in the west were rifles and carbines. Almost every home had at least one, often more. Many homes had a Winchester '73, mostly in .44 WCF as well as a single shot "buffler gun". These, mostly in cartridges between the Sharps .44 to the "Big 50" were handy because a good way to commit suicide back than was trying to kill a Bison with a .44 WCF. Right up until the smokeless powder era, cap and ball rifles and handguns stayed fairly popular, too.

The last myth of this post is those short barreled shotguns we see in the movies. Not so, back then. The shotgun guards of the Wells Fargo Stage mostly carried Winchester carbines. Those who carried shotguns mostly carried thirty to thirty-two inch barrels. The eighteen and twenty inch (and shorter) barrels didn't really happen until the smokeless era. There were a very few short barrels. This has much to do with the burning properties of large amounts of black powder. There were no shotguns with the butts cut off to make a handgun, to the best of my knowledge. I shoot black powder in a twenty inch barrel, with a full butt. I have loaded full charge buckshot loads with black. I do not even want to think about trying that with a stockless shotgun.

Oh, one final myth, John Wayne as a cavalryman. The maximum weight allowed for a horse soldier back then was one hundred and forty-five pounds. The Duke wouldn't have qualified for the Cavalry past about when he was twelve years old. He would have been Artillery, big enough to help manhandle those big guns.

Happy Birthday America! I'm a lucky guy who won life's real lottery, born in the United States of America.

The .327 Federal Magnum

The folks at Federal Cartridge reinvented the .32-20 Winchester a while back. They call it the .327 Federal Magnum and, like the .32 H&R Magnum and the .32 S&W Long it is just another lengthened .32 S&W. So, this new cartridge goes back to among the very first of the American centerfire cartridges.

I would submit that the .327 Fed is only a cartridge because the ammomakers are afraid of all those very old .32-20 revolvers and even the old '73 Winchester rifles and carbines. Some pretty savvy gunnies have had some of the limited production Ruger Single Action .32-20 revolvers loaded to hotter ballistics than the .327. Still, knowing about all those old Colt Police Positive Specials in .32-20 and today's refusing to read the label consumers, I can understand the new cartridge.

The main gun this newish cartridge is loaded in is Ruger's SP101, a small framed "hideout gun." I own one in .357 Magnum. In that guise it is a five shot revolver that, in spite of it's small size, is tough enough to take any load I have ever stuffed in it. I, however, am not that tough, so I keep it loaded with various midrange loads. Most often a handload with a 158 grain soft lead semiwadcutter hollowpoint at a measured velocity of 1000 fps. This recoils a lot less than the full charge loads yet is stout enough for any serious use. If I were going somewhere I did not wish to carry hand loads I'd use one of the +P or +P+ .38 loads.

The SP101 in .327 Federal Magnum, though, is a six shot revolver and even with the very stoutest loads, a 100 grain bullet at 1500 fps from a three inch tube, does not kick as much as the big loads from a .357. It is almost as LOUD, though. The muzzle blast from a three inch .357 or .327 is impressive, another reason for a somewhat downloaded round.

The handloader, of course, can load whatever (s)he wishes, from loads that barely get a single buckshot out going fast enough to pierce a tin can at seven yards to a load that strains the brass shell case. The person shooting factory loads has a lot of choices, too. The old .32 S&W is really hard to find and is kind of useless, although still good for very small game at close range or, perhaps, good for teaching someone who has never held a shootin' iron before how not to be afraid of the gun.

The next two choices are useful, though. The .32 S&W Long is wonderfully accurate. With it's light recoil and low report it is a great load for target shooting, plinking and small game hunting. If I were going out in the woods someplace I would feel quite comfortable with a cylinder full of those. The factory ballistics are a bullet of 98-100 grains at about 800 fps. This is plenty for snakes and small game, it's loud enough to discourage feral dogs and will put one away if it's put in the right spot. It's not the exact load I'd choose if I were going up against feral humans but I would not feel exactly naked, either. After all, when Teddy Roosevelt was New York City's Commissioner of Police, that is the cartridge he chose to arm police officers. This load is very close to the .32-20 black powder load and a lot of folks considered themselves well armed with one of those irons, back in the day.

Someday I shall write something about the myths of everyone in the old west carrying shootin' irons with bores the size of sewer pipes, along with a few other myths.

The next step up is the .32 H&R Magnum. This load is right up with the loads for the good revolvers in .32-20, say back before 1920 or so. A 100 grain bullet at around 12-1300 fps out of a six inch barrel. A stronger gun than those H&Rs could give a bit more, the term "Magnum " in this case is sort of false advertising. The .32 H&R could have been loaded in the .32 S&W Long case except for fear of the weak old guns in .32 Long. Not all those old .32s were weak. The old literature is full of handloaders loading it up to power past the .32 H&R levels in the stronger guns.

Notice a pattern? Each time the gun industry puts out a stronger gun, the cartridge companies make a longer cartridge case so the consumer cannot blow himself up. Meanwhile, the grand old .32-20 sits in the back corner, unloved except by those of us with long memories. When the grand old man of the shooting game, the late Elmer Keith bought his very first centerfire revolver, he bought a Colt Single Action Army in .32-20. That seven and a half inch Colt brought a lot of game down, although Saint Elmer of Keith thought it was too light for Elk.

A generation later than Elmer's first CF revolver, a guy named Skeeter Skelton got out of the Service and. with his saved money, bought a personal sidearm, a seven and a half inch Colt Single Action Army in, you guessed it, .32-20. This famous old southwestern lawman became a gun writer himself, the whole shooting world mourned his (too early) death. Something else about these too men who bought the .32-20s early in their careers, both went on to be recognized in the yearly "Greatest American Handgunner" award. Now I cannot promise that you, the reader, will ever win high honors by choosing this, or any other, .32 but, it can't hurt.

This leads us to the latest .32, the .327 Federal Magnum. This is the first of the new cartridges loaded to true magnum handgun pressures. The .32-20 was, for a while, loaded to nearly the same pressures, the "High Velocity" shells were only supposed to go into the 92 Winchester and a very few handguns like the SAA. This round was discontinued for WW2 and never picked back up.

The .327 shoots the same .311-313 bullets as the other .32s. It's a long and old story why they are called .32s and not .31s, short version, the earliest of the .32s used outside lubricated heel type bullets of the same diameter as the ca'tridge case. This is the same kind of bullet now used in the .22 rimfires. Now this was back when all bullet lubes were soft and sticky, if you carried a gunfull or two of those cartridges in a pocket they got all kinds of crud on them, this was carried into the gun and didn't do much for the barrel. Plus, as anyone who has ever carried a mess of .22s in a pants pocket knows, they are easily bent, playing hob with reliability and accuracy. So, they soon went to bullets that fit the lube grooves inside the cases, the bullets were very slightly smaller so they would fit. Being soft lead, the black powder charge slugged the bullet up enough to fit in the larger barrels. Then, the new guns barrels eventually went from .32 to .31 but they never changed the name. Now you know more than you ever wanted about why .32s shoot .31 bullets, .38s shoot .357 bullets, .44s shoot .429 bullets. Oddly, .45s shoot .45 bullets, the same caliber as the muzzle loading .44 revolvers from the Civil War era. Try not to think on it too much. Every time I try I need a nap until the headache goes away.

At any rate, I mentioned that the first gun this new cartridge was chambered in was the Ruger SP101. This is a pure D defense and carry gun. While there are many who scoff at a .32 as a combat round I do not see many of the scoffers volunteering to sand in front of one.

The sights on the .327 Ruger are different than the sights on my .357 SP101. My sights are fixed. I did a little file work on mine and it puts my favored handload right where it looks. If I wanted to drastically change the load I'd have to order a new front sight blade and redo the work. The .327 has a rear sight adjustable for windage and you adjust elevation by changing out the front sight blade, an easy task.

Ruger also makes the two other revolvers to fit this cartridge, although they are hard to find. Their fine GP100 and their Single Action. Both of these carry more than six shots, one seven and the other eight. Both of these guns are, in my opinion, 'way too heavy for a carry gun. I'm not much on tellin' folks what to do but if you want either one of these guns, do carry it in some kind of shoulder holster. Either one, in a belt holster will lead to back trouble. Kind of like what happens to uniformed Police Officers with all the crap they now carry on their gunbelts.

There are some other gunmakers loading this round, unfortunately no carbines or rifles yet. This round would be just the huckleberries in a Marlin 1894, unfortunately they are going out of business. Winchester no longer makes guns. The only hope is the various foreign companies making 92 Winchester clones.

There are, so far, three loads for this ca'tridge. Federal has a load made as a combat load, the excellent Hydrashok hollow point at 1330 fps. All these velocities are clocked from that 3 and one sixteenth inch barrel. At any rate, the Hydrashok weighs 85 grains and it is somewhat downloaded from what it could be. This for lower recoil and muzzle blast. Although a lifetime of saying "huh, what?" is better than being killed, deafness is a pain best avoided. If I didn't already have the five shooter .357 I would look long and hard at this gun and load to defend my home and family.

The next load is the Federal American Eagle 100 grain soft point at 1400 fps. This load will shoot flatter than the 158 grain .357. A gun with about the same frame size as the SP101 but a six or seven and a half inch barrel would be a fine gun for the sports(wo)man.

The load I like best is Speer's 115 grain Gold Dot Hollowpoint at 1300 fps. This is a near copy of Elmer's fine old load with that weight bullet only hard cast lead alloy.This load and the same weight bullet, only cast, would be a great all around load for both carbine and handgun. The hollow point will, of course, penetrate less than a hard cast lead will. This load would be fine for anything up to and including deer. I would not choose this cartridge for deer hunting if I were a city feller, with only a short time to go a long way to land I didn't know. It's a cartridge, like the .32-20 for the folks who live where the deer live, who know where, and how, to get close and wait for the right shot.

So, this is an updated copy of an 1889 Winchester development. Unlike the .32-20, though, the .327 Federal is a straight case, not tapered. This does not mean anything to the folks shooting factory loads but is a boon to the handloader. A straight case needs no lube when sized in a carbide sizing die, the somewhat bottlenecked v=case of the .32-20 does need lube. The hand loader knows this, the factory shooter doesn't care.

If I were loading this cartridge I would shoot cast bullets in the 115 grain range and also size some double aught buckshot down from .33 caliber to .313 and seat it over just a tad of Bullseye or Titegroup. I'd seat that buckshot down far enough to slip a tad of bullet lube down over it,I would only seat the shot down far enough to where I could get the lube around the curved part. This would be a cheap plinking load, not much more expensive than a .22.

Anyhow, that's the newest .32. There is some controversy. Was it named after Chevrolet's finest engine ever, the .327 or was it called the .327 because it beminds people of the .357? While it doesn't have the power of the .357, it doesn't kick as much either. It does easily match the 9mm Luger. That makes it a pretty fair round.

Entering The Terrible Twos!

We drove up and ate hamburgers and hot dogs, as well as birthday cake for Karson's second birthday. Pele' the dog loved that, the kids mostly only ate about half a hot dog each. Pele' should have been on that I Haz A Hot Dog website.

At least William is finally old enough to know that other folks' birthdays aren't about him. Unfortunately now Josiah thought that all those presents should have been for him.

It was just a chance to see (most of) the kids. Too soon it was time to come home. Dunno when we'll see 'em again.

One Last Question About Rolling Stone Vs McCrytal:

Y'all don't get me wrong, I am not sure I am sorry to see McC gone. I have had some serious questions about how our forces are deployed over there and their rules of engagement. There was that small outpost in a valley with the bad guys running free on the hills overlooking it and no air or arty when they got pounded. Sorry, I'm old school. I know we are going to lose men (and now women) in war, I just want our guys to know that they will have the chance to kill the bad guys and if they get into a tight spot that a curtain of air and artillery goes around them until the bad guys are dead and ours are safe. I did not feel that with McC.

Still, here is something I don't quite get. That "reporter" was with the McC group in Paris, after the McC team had spent I dunno how long in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a major league Muslim country. Our troops, from Private to General do not get to drink anything alcoholic, including the fuel of the military, beer.

So, they get stuck in Paris, for longer than expected because of the volcano, and they all get a little chance to blow off some steam. Now it's been a long time since I wore the uniform and I never did wear one in a Muslim country. I did spend some time at sea, though, on some amphibious ships. No drinking, the durned ol' Navy is as bad as the Muslims. So, when we hit Okinawa, on the way to Viet Nam, we had more than a couple. Now, granted, I didn't have much truck with Generals or, for that matter, First Lieutenants, but I heard more than a few comments about LBJ and that bunch from Gunnery Sergeants (ie, Gods) and other NCOs.

It was then understood that what was said in the bars and cathouses didn't count for much. Today, not only do we have to go try to save the sorry backsides of a bunch that, until we got there, were getting killed en mass by a bunch of punks, meanwhile having to do it under rules of engagement that get good men killed, but we can't even have a beer when off the line. and then, when we have our guys out of theater, they get held responsible for bar talk at a party?

I dunno, gang.
seems like the Muslims we are trying to save might try being a little repectful of our culture. It also seems that troops should be allowed to blow off steam when out of the fighting. Lastly, I realise that civilian control of the military is all well and good. It's just that, from Private to General, our troops are US citizens, with First Amendment rights, the same as reporters and politicians. No one made then Senator Obama resign for talking bad about George W. Bush. How come our soldiers don't have that same right? Actually, they do. They just may not disobey lawful orders or advocate unlawful acts. Too bad the Pencil Neck In Chief does not understand, nor like, freedom of speech. Oh well, it's still the law of the land for us civilians, at least for now.

In more local news, today was my grandson Karson's second birthday party, I have pictures for a later post.

Trying To Figure If Anybody In This Administration Knows What (S)He Is Doing.

On some levels it's a shame that I am not hep to popular culture. There seems to be some group out there doing something or other called Insane Clown Posse. At least I see that name as an aside in various stories. It would seem a good title for this Presidential and Congressional Administration.

The first thing I heard today when I started paying attention to world events, after local things like dog food, laundry, breakfast, etc, is that General McC is in trouble for some comments to a reporter from Rolling Stone. Pardon me for bein' a pore ignorant redneck but with a war to run, how come this guys has anything to say to a reporter from Rolling Stone but something along the line of "go cover rock and roll, I'm trying to run a war on the cheap".

Someone please explain to me how, in the midst of a shooting war, the top General has time to say anything but "talk to my PIO."

There is a big problem in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's not really with the military. It is with all these civilian agencies. Just as in Iraq, the State Department is failing it's job. USAID is failing it's job. The Peace Corps is failing it's job. So the Army, Marines, Air Force and even the Navy are trying to do what all the civilian agencies will not do.

Meanwhile that peabrain Gibbs is talking about McC and company being immature? The spokesman for an Administration that chose Joe Biden as number two? This Administration is the only outfit in the entire universe that would be improved by promoting Joe Biden.

It's funny, what the Puppyblender noticed, when it's a Republican Admin, like Shineski and Bush and Rummy, it was all "listen to your Generals!" Now, during a Democrat Admin it's "civilian control of the military!"

It is a clear sign that the government is clueless when we have the Navy serving in Afghanistan, take a look at a map. no ocean. For that matter, not much in the way of any water. This part is not the Administration, this has been going on since the beginning of the war. I could understand borrowing some Spec Ops SEALs in '01 and '02, along with some Seabees for the first year or so but, after that? Nah. When I'm king of the world the Navy will concentrate on that part of the map what is blue.

I saw a short piece in last nights Overnight Open Thread at Ace of Spades about how they want to change the roles of the Marines for they haven't done any over the beach landings since WW2. I wonder what those things were in February and May of 1965 in Viet Nam? Or that thing in Somalia? Or, for that matter, in the Dominican Republic during the Johnson Admin?

Anyhow, I'm working on a couple of pieces on some more rifle cartridges, the 7-08 and .260 Remington, as well as that famous old dual purpose cartridge the .32 WCF aka .32-20. I dunno which will come first.

Ming July 25, 1987-June 20, 2010

Ming went to the bridge today. When she woke up with her Mama I took her outside and she could not even pee. I brought her in and she couldn't drink water or eat her pill wrapped in her beloved liverwurst. So Linda Lou held her and loved on her one more time while I prepared her way. Then her pain was over.

We didn't get her until she was eight years old, her teeth were poor, we think from a diet of canned food. She never did learn to like any man but me, the people at Pug Rescue weren't sure she'd take to me but she climbed right up into our laps.

We do not know what kind of life she had before us but once she was home with us she was a happy dog, for a grumpy old lady. She was a good girl and she loved her mama.

Update: Linda Lou didn't like the first pictures and so erased them and picked out these. In doing so she erased the text, so I rewrote it. No big harm there I reckon.