Broke My Computer

 I was told that if I put the dic that restored only the factory progams into my big Dell Studio I could then add the programs to do everything it was supposed to do. So I put that disc in and followed all the directions and then it restarted. Only thing is that now it's saying "your computer restarted unexpectedly. Press okay to restart your computer and continue to install Windows." So I press Okay and it says"your computer restarted unexpectedly" etc, etc. And no matter how many times I unplug it and then try again I get that same message.

 Does anyone have an idea? Um, an idea about the computer, not that, Harv!

Primer And ammunition Prices To Rise At Month's End.

 I was reading around the various gun blogs the other day and saw where the price of primers are going up. And since primers are a vital part of centerfire cartridges, ammo prices will also increase. There are a whole slew of Federal agencies that have been granted no law enforcement powers by the United States Constitution buying bazillions of rounds of fighting ammo. This does make me wonder, just whom are they planning to fight.

 Still, the various ammo and component factories are already at full production. No one is willing to build a new plant until we get our politicians under control. If we can. So, no increase of production, increased demand equals rationing by price.

 So I get paid before the end of the month. I'm buying a mess of primers.I've got plenty of powder, a few hundred pounds of lead. Primers are the key part of a cartridge. The cases can be used multiple times, I have handgun cases I've loaded a dozen times. On or two max loads and then milder loads until the case mouth splits. And with a little care, that's a long time. 

 Powder prices will probably also increase but a big canister will last for a long time.

 I've mine the backstop for spent bullets and dropped them into the cold melting pot. When they finally melt the dirt and any copper jacketing floats to the top and is skimmed off. A fingernail sized lump of wax or bullet lube helps with that. The fluxing agent helps the tin in the bullet alloy stay mixed. Drop the fluxing agent in, stir well and then skim.

 Don't roll your own? Well, get ready for another shortage.

Michelle O Says We're In The Middle Of A Giant Recovery.

 Who knew? There is a whole new industry growing by leaps and bounds, though. The theft of copper wire and other saleable items from abandoned houses. And stealing stuff from farms, although that isn't quite so common here where we're still allowed to shoot the buggers.

 Lord, these Obamas are dumber than a box of gravel.

A Quick Survey Of The .22 LR Ammo On My Shelf.

 I like my Ruger 10-.22. I actually bought a Shilen match stainless barrel and a Hogue overmolded stock when I didn't even have a 10-.22. I rectified this, back before the prices of anything that would go BANG went through the roof.  Then I went through the action and put everything but the bolt and trigger guard in with Voltquartsen parts and turned that $75.00 used clunker into a four hundred dollar tack driver.

 It is very easy to swap the barrel and stock. One screw to remove the stock and two allen bolts for the barrel so I have fired it in both configurations with much of the ammo. Then I had my son in law, Dean, slice a couple of one inch sections off the factory stock so his oldest boy ( and, soon the next one) can shoot it. As those boys grow the one inch sections will be put back on. It won't be as pretty but then I'm used to that.I never did get as purty as Mama wanted me to be.

 The carbine wears a Weaver 2-7X rimfire scope and sometimes I switch out and put the 36X target scope on, not very often anymore as I seldom go to that range with the big concrete shooting benches anymore.

 Now the ammo.  With either barrel it is best to avoid the unplated rounds. The combination of the waxy lube and the unplated lead bullets working through that semi-auto action means that I often had to strip the action down for detail cleaning. Otherwise, frequent jams and failures to feed and eject, Too bad, most of the real match ammo is plain lubricated lead. I'll mention some I've tried and used.

 I bought two five hundred rounds bricks of Aguila ammo, they have many different styles, I have used the Super Extra high speed 40 grain solid point and the 38 grain hollow point. Both these rounds are as accurate as I can shoot from any normal shooting position with the hunting scope. They give up a little off that big concrete bench with the 36X scope, not much, say one inch at fifty yards instead of the half inch that real match ammo can do. The downside is that with that tight match chamber and the custom extractor the empty cases start sticking once I've fired it some and the gun starts getting a little dirty. A pass or two with the bore snake and then all is well. Other ammo does this as well, with only a couple that seem to shoot all day.

 I did try one fifty round box of their 60 grain bullets. At 25 yards they shot well. At fifty yards they were starting to tumble in flight. Those bullets are made for a faster twist. Actually if I really cared about the Armadillos around or if I had a hen house I would probably keep some of these on hand. Not many bullets will expand big enough to leave as big a wound channel as a bullet turning sideways. Now a tumbling bullet is a no no for big game because the tumbling bullet can veer off course. A fox or raccoon isn't big enough for that to matter.By the time that .22 bullet has gone far enough to be far off course, it has done it's work.

 CCI.: This is the champ in the match barrel with the lower powered hunting scope.I never have a failure to feed, fire, extract or eject with the 36 grain mini mag hollow point. And it is accurate enough for any small game  or varmint out as far as I would care to shoot a .22. Come the apocalypse I'll keep myself fed with the bunnies and squirrels that live out here, and the turkeys, too. If Bingo T. Pug or Cochise' Apache Princess would ever learn to retrieve I could add ducks to the list.

 The CCI Minimag 40 grain plated solid point feeds and fires just as well, it might even be just a tick more accurate, not enough to matter unless I was shooting targets for money. The hollowpoint is better for game.

 The CCI Blazer ammo is minute of small game accurate, the downside is the unplated bullet. Unless you really get off on detail stripping the action, only to have to do it again in another fifty to a hundred rounds you'll save that stuff for a bolt action, or a single shot or revolver.

 The CCI Stinger ammo shoots well in my rifle in both configurations. It feeds fires, extracts and ejects just fine. The downside is that it's some noisier and it is effected more by the wind. It also ruins more meat. I have some around still, I'm not sure why. I ought to shoot it up. Oh well, I'll save it for the raccoons in the hen house, if I had a hen house.

 CCI has about eleventy other types of .22 LR ammo that I simply haven't tried. I'll stay with the Mini Mag hollowpoint when it comes to CCI.

 Federal: I've fired many different Federal loads. The Federal Gold Medal Match Standard Velocity is the accuracy champ of all the stuff I've tried. Trouble is, the standard velocity doesn't have the oomph to always extract and eject. And the unplated bullet.  If I had a bolt action I'd have a bunch of this. Instead the less than a full box will go either I'll give it to someone with a revolver or I'll shoot it up when my carbine is due for it's semi annual detail strip, clean and lube.

 The Federal Champion value pack of 525 rounds of plated lead hollowpoints is nearly as good as the CCI. The bulk packaging keeps it from being just as good, a few rounds of every brick seem to get damaged in handling and transit. Still, even if I had to throw away 25 rounds of every brick it's still be cheaper than CCI. It's good stuff. Just be willing to sit under a good light and examine the rounds, one by one.The Federal Gameshock plated 40 grain solid and the 38 grain hollowpoint are a little more expensive but are very good in my rifle. Any of the plated high velocity rounds will work well for anything I wanted to do with a .22.

 Remington: I have a couple of thousand bulk pack plated high velocity hollowpoints on my shelf. I buy it when it's on sale. It isn't as accurate as the CCI or Federal. And it will fail to extract or eject when the chamber starts getting dirty. A pull or two with the Bore Snake fixes that.

 When I say it isn't as accurate I mean I can tell the difference from a sandbagged rest or even from prone with a loop sling. Off hand or kneeling I can't shoot well enough anymore to prove the difference. Perhaps someone younger could. Still not too may younger guys anymore were in the NRA Junior divisions and on their high school rifle teams. Yeah, we had them and no, we didn't shoot up the schools or do drive by shoots. Instead we drilled and practiced in prone, sitting, kneeling and off hand. With both loop and hasty slings. Mayor Bloomberg would have had the vapors.

 I still have a couple of boxes of Remington Standard velocity. This is unplated so the same caveats apply. And the Standard velocity doesn't eject well. This would be fixed by a weaker, target mainspring but then the high velocity rounds would batter the action. Still, with all that, it was really accurate. I'll still not buy any more for this rifle. If Santa ever brings me one of the .22 single shot bolt action target rifle from my youth, though...

 Winchester: My very favorite round in Winchester is the hard to find 40 grain plated DynaPoint. That odd, small hollow point opens up fine on game and although it's a tad slower than the normal high velocity it's still stout enough to work the action and in some barrels it's slow enough to not be supersonic. As a matter of fact it's subsonic in the factory barrel of this rifle and barely beats super sonic in the Shilen. Why does this matter? Half the noise from a .22 is the CRACK! of the bullet breaking the sound barrier. This matters if I'm not wearing plugs or muffs. It matters even more to those shooting with a sound suppressor. which I don't.

 The Winchester Super X high velocity 37 grain plated Hotpoint is my second favorite Winchester round in this rifle. It is just as accurate but a tiny bit more wind sensitive. It shoots a couple hundred feet per second faster. The bad news is that the bullet doesn't seem to open up as fast as the Dyna Point. This is a plus on edible game, not quite so good on smaller varmints. Both of these rounds feed, fire, extract and eject every time, a lot of .22 ammo doesn't.

 The Winchester plated 40 grain high speed hollowpoint is just a tic or two less accurate my my heavy barrel. Please do not ask why.Barrels are like a high maintenance redhead, you never really know what they're gonna like.It ain't really like I can shoot so well, away from a sandbag rest, anymore to really prove the difference. And your barrel may like something else, anyhow.

 The 40 grain plated round nosed high speed solid point works just as well and shoots just as accurately. If I were out trying to murder poor little tin cans or dirt clods I'd use this ammo as soon as I'd use anything else.

 The bulk pack 36 grain plated hollowpoint is like the Federal or Remington bulk packed ammo. A few rounds in every big box will be trash from bouncing around in trucks and railcars. Bulk packed ammo used to have more failure to file episodes that we see now although bulk pack will still give some. The priming compound is dropped in the case and then the case is spun around so the priming goo gets centrifuged into the rim. Then it dries. Then the powder goes in and the bullet is seated. Some companies are a little less careful with the spinning. And then the bulk packaging gives it more of a chance for some, or all of the compound to be knocked out of the rim.
 The main problem with bulk pack is on the other end, though. The heeled bullet isn't in there really firm and so the bullet can, and often does, get knocked a little cattywampus.

 This is why bulk packed ammo is seldom as accurate as that in the fifty or hundred round boxes. Those fancy plastic boxes that have the rounds point down and not touching anything are the best thing to maintain an already accurate round as the bullets do not get knocked around. Bulk packed for plinking.

 If I were ever to have to have only one firearm, well I think it would be this .22. I could hunt small game and, yes, defend myself. I wouldn't choose a .22 long rifle to take to battle but then my battle days are long behind. And if I had a couple-three of those new Ruger BX-25 25 round magazines loaded with hollowpoints I'd be far from naked. The .22 isn't the perfect defense round but I know of no one who would gladly stand in a rainstorm of them. One thing about them is that they will stay in the body or skull, the skin is (usually) too elastic to let them out. So it goes and hits the skin or skull, or ribs or just about any bone and then just bounces around.

 The bad news is that there is almost no shock so those who must depend on a .22 should act like a big city cop and empty the magazine. Then reload and, if necessary, empty it again!

Well Joe, You've Got The Hard Part Done, You've Got It Talked About.

 Last night's "debate" beminds me of back when I was in the Service. Some twerp would be loudly and profanely telling someone how he was going to kick his hiney and that some one would quietly say "you got the hard part done, you got it talked about". Oddly, that was often the end of it, although usually if it came to blows the loudmouth would lose. Of course it's also possible that Biden listened to Algore and decided that he would not fall prey to the high altitude so he sucked on a bottle of Nitrous Oxide thinking it was oxygen. It ain't like he's the brightest of all God's little door prizes. That's an explanation. Stupidity, poor manners and laughing gas. That's Joe!

 Meanwhile the Twitterverse is full of folks saying "If Romney wins imma gonna riot!" Um, go ahead. Citizens learned from the Rodney King riots. Unarmed people had their homes and businesses trashed and burned. Armed people did not have their homes and businesses trashed and burned. People like to claim that the big surge in gun buying happened during Clinton and then continued. Um, no, it's people folks learned from those riots. So, go ahead. Riot. Remember your buckshot proof BVDs.

 I do not really understand the hatred from the left.Biden made no coherent points, he just giggled and tried to bully. The "moderator" would not let Ryan complete a sentence. And the left is rejoicing. No one but diehard leftists thought Biden did anything. Meanwhile undecideds were repulsed. Do we really want a babbling bully a heartbeat away from the Presidency? I don't.  Biden bullying Ryan is a nonsequiter anyway. Biden depended on Ryan being the adult in the room. Had Ryan stooped to Biden's level Ryan would have turned Plugs upside down, put his feet in his armpits and ridden him like a pogo stick.

 This is the M.O. of the left. Their very lives depend on the decency of their victims. Trouble is, they're betting on a losing horse. They are now endangering our children and grandchildren.  There is a reason that the outlaws of the old west never managed to "tree a western town". It is our side that has the veterans. It is our side that has the working LEOs. It is our side that has the hunters. And they're trying to bully us. I'm asceered! Mommy! Yeah, right.

Believing Your Own Press Releases

 Well, here it is, Saturday and the Blogosphere is still afire with Wednesday's big debate debacle for Obama. I think I know why he failed so badly.

 To begin with, Obama is only moderately smart. Okay, he's not dumb as a post but he ain't near as smart as the lefty blowhard media types want to say. He's maybe got a 115 or 120 IQ and not much intellectual curiosity. What he does have is a certain facile charm and an ability to sound off with slogans. I seriously doubt that his personal library is as well stocked as my late mother and stepfather's who were a railway clerk and a railway trainman. Yet as I was growing up they took me to museums, zoos and other places where I was forced to see (and think about) something besides  what really interested a boy from the fifties and sixties.

 I always read about how they take their kids, Malaria and Squamous on big fancy vacations, do you ever read about them taking those girls to the Smithsonian? I do not believe either Barry or Mich' care about things outside their own comfort level. There is a phrase I remember from somewhere, I don't recall where. All I remember is that some famous guy was failing and one observer said "He (or she?) believes his own press releases. In other words, Obama has started (and I don't know how long ago) to believe his own hype. He thinks he is The Lightbringer. When actually everything he has promised has turned to sh, um, fertilizer. Obama is surrounded by people that actually believe communism would work, if only the right people (them) were in charge. People very much like them believed that if only Stalin knew... as the pistol bullet went into the back of their necks.

 Obama lives in a bubble of his own making. Inside that bubble they squawk about how much they care about the poor while they give half a billion dollars to Solyndra. They congratulate each other on their lack of racism while their policies have black unemployment at double white unemployment, and black youth has a rate of fifty percent.

 Later, after some sleep: So I flip to Ace of Spades and notice that there is a post about Romney not being qualified to be President because he is only worth 250 million..Others in the same line of work as Bain Capital are worth far more. Meanwhile the WaPo shows no interest in how Grubby Harry Reid is a multimillionaire with never had earned $200,000 a year on a government salary. Um, Wapo? Governor Romney built Bain Capital and then went into public service, just as that industry took off, big time. There is also the little matter of the charities. I would really like to know if there is even one active Democrat who has ever given so high a portion of his income to real charities. Well, Soros gives a bunch to "charities" like Media Mutters. How much of HIS income goes to heal the sick and comfort the really poor?

 Oh well, time for me to do something else. In a sane world there'd be a bounty on the big Dems. The big unions that help themselves at the expense of the workers and their businesses. Linda Lou was a member of one of the postal unions, never once did her union give a nickle to the political candidates she supported and her pension is peanuts. Of course she was only a Federal Employee and not civil service. Yet they had millions for lefty Dems.  Meanwhile the Teamsters support the Party that puts "bumps in the road" in front of those trying to make a living in trucks.

 Ah, a pox on all those national Dems.

 Meanwhile I have about given up on trying to fix this computer until my son in law and family come out sometime during the third weekend of the month. Maybe he can figure it out. As we can see, I can read and type here. I have put a DVD of a movie into the slot and up popped True Grit, the John Wayne one not that new one. I dug through a ton of stuff and found the big speakers that came with this computer for I had lost the sound, only to discover that I had the old speakers plugged into the wrong jack. Oh well, I through a bunch of old crap away and discovered most of a box of Federal Gold Medal Match .22 ammo. So not all was lost.
  So, anyhow the 'puter will play a DVD movie but won't play any vids off the net. Sigh.

Going To Be Out Of Pocket For A While

 I am going to be pretty much away from the Internet soon, over the next few days. I got this fancy (and expensive) new dish to pull the magical Internet from the sky. Well, somehow I've lost the ability to view any You tube or any clips from news sites or even www.nakedchubbygirls.net.

 and the clips and such are why I got the fancy new dish. So the guy from the company came out and said it's not the dish, it's something in my software. He said  it's like maybe I have too many choices to run them on and the poor computer can't figure out which one. So I've been taking programs out, so far no joy. I got it as far as taking Adobe out. So then I looked a a post at Pamibe's spot and it told me I had to Have Adobe so I clicked to download it and lo and behold it still says I have to download Adobe. Poo.

 So, anyhow I'm going to be fighting with this 'til I somehow get it right. Worse, the laptop won't start so I don't even have that during the fight.Foo.

 The good news is that Mitt won tonight. Can't wait to see how the MSM tries to spin this.

Forty-Seven Percent For Mitt

 There is a whole lot of hooraw about Mitt Romney's talk about the 47% of people who get some form of government help. Well, my Linda Lou and I are both drawing social security now and it is the major part of our income. We are also on Medicare, of course and sometimes we must use the county's senior citizen bus service.

 Our individual pensions are small enough  that we no longer pay income tax, the main "tax" we pay today is the steady erosion of the dollars in our fixed income. The neighbor lady next door is in the same fix. The three of us would be proud to pay an income tax on our small incomes if only the damned government would stop inflating the currency so much that our planned retirement of genteel poverty became one of abject poverty.

 This is the reason that all three of us plan to pull the lever for the Romney-Ryan ticket. I may bee very wrong but I do not believe that Romney talking about how 47% don't pay income taxes is a gaffe. After all we payed a lot of taxes during our working lives. and had we been able to invest that percentage of our wages into something beside a politician's promise we would probably be a lot better off than we are today.

 I do not know that we will be better off under Romney/Ryan. I do know the crowd in Washington now is killing us.

 And the heroic watchdogs of the press are basking in the sun, thinking that Joe Biden is smart. And thinking that Obama has a plan to keep the Mideast from boiling over. God help us.

Talk Like A Pirate Day, 2012

 Well, I once had a puppy named Pirate but he was run over by the cokehead that used to live down the road.  He was a sweet boy, named because he had a big ol' black eyepatch. Other than that I have no particular love for pirates and still believe they should all be dropped overboard when caught. Or bombed. Or shot. Or burnt alive with blowtorches, starting at the toes.Or dropped in the woodchipper.

 Still, if one wishes to talk like a pirate, today is the day. I mostly talk like I'm irate.

 Speaking of irate, I got a new ISP, well I think it's an ISP. I'm not much better at computer talk than pirate speak. At any rate I had Verizon satellite and then all of a sudden my Verizon bill was over 400 dollars. Seems that, unbeknownst to me, there was a big price to pay for watching too much video. So I went to my sat TV provider and they sold me a ViaSat Surfbeam 2 with a big ol' dish and everything. Now I can't use U tube or any other video, which was kind of the point of the whole thing. and I don't know why. I wonder should I try to clear out everything and then redo all the original discs? Or what. Arrr! There, I talked like a pirate.0

Profiles In Cowardice

It's hard to get straight what is happening over in North Africa and the Mideast right now. A few things have come out. Seems that the Egyptian Embassy of the United States of America put out a statement condemning the free speech of a group of Americans. Silly ol' Mitt Romney thinks that the First Amendment means that the United States Government, in all it's branches should support the rights of Americans, attacked this statement. Because there seems to have been an agreement to not campaign on 9/11 he put an embargo on the publication of his statement.

 Then the Religion of Peace attacked two of our embassies and, according to the Obama Relection Campaign and it's willing allies in some sections of the Republican Party and just about all to the DNC Propaganda Team that was once known as the Free Press decided that it was much better to talk about Romney's "gaffe" than the reports that United States Ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, required the Marines on duty to have no live ammunition. Now this is being disputed but there is precedence: In 1983 the Marine guards in Beirut were not allowed to have loaded magazines in their rifles. I'm not sure that the 5.56 rounds would have stopped that truck full of explosives  but I know that I would rather die shooting than fumbling with a mag, trying to chamber a round so that I could try to shoot.

 Worse, I beleive that the Marine guards in embassies do not carry rifles, or semi-auto pistols. At least they used to carry those nonthreatening S&W .357 Mag revolvers, which are even slower to load than magazine fed weapons. Don't get me wrong, I'm a revolver man but (a), mine is loaded and (b) I'm not likely to face mobs. An American embassy in a foreign land is American soil. If I were in charge of the security in an embassy I would want something belt fed. And lots of claymore mines.

 Then, again, the whole setup for guarding embassies has been wrong for decades. The Marines chosen for that duty are really chosen for their looks and "military bearing". Now a wonderful spit shine and a perfecly straight gig line are nice, sure. A ramrod up the butt makes for a really nice posture when it's time for inspection, and an embassy Marine is always on inspection. Meanwhile what they need are a few of those slouching, sleepy looking fellows from the rear ranks that have poor military bearing but have proven to be really good at killing bad guys.  Can't have that, though, it's undiplomatic. It would be really nice if someone in the United States Government would realize that diplomacy has failed when the bad guys are torching the effin' embassy. When they're shooting RPGs the time to talk has passed.

 I also find it very interesting that Eric "we are cowards for not talking about race" Holder's "Justice" Department has already announced the real name and criminal record of the fellow who led the syndicate producing this movie that the ROP types claim to be objecting to. Too bad they couldn't find out who authorized Fast and Furious. I wonder did Mr. Holder give directions to this guy's house and pictures of his wife and kids?

 Meanwhile the people who stormed the Consulate seem to have taken a lot of information out of it, including, I've read, lists of the Lybians working with Americans. I'm sure they did all this because they were butthurt over a video no one has seen.

 So, we don't have enough will to protect our people. And we don't have an administration smart enough to know that when they go around blowing up various Jihadi leaders with Hellfire missiles from drones that the Jihadi  followers might just get sorta mad and rush us on 9/11. And the DNC Propaganda wing, once known as the free and independent press, blame it all on Romney.

 Sure is a damned shame that President Romney let this happen. He should not have skipped his Presidential Daily Brief and gone to Las Vegas to campaign. Oh, wait.

 Speaking about being cowards for not talking about race, just how far back has this collection of thieves and fools set racial relations back, anyhow?

A Non-Shooting And Only Partially Political Post About Spam.

 Yesterday was Sunday. I am of the age where I only get to eat eggs and stuff for breakfast once a week, or less. Getting old ain't for the fainthearted. So, anyhow I had a block of Monterrey Jack cheese so figured on a cheese omelet. Trouble is, the bacon had sat in the fridge for so long that it wasn't looking too good. That's another thing my Docs don't like me to eat often. Foo.

 I usually have one of those football hams every month, one big ham and sweet 'tater dinner and then some sammiches, some potato, ham and onion hash and ham'n'eggs. Trouble is, it wasn't time for the football ham yet, especially after the Saturday Brisket (more on that coming up).



 So, no ham, no bacon. I had some of those Little Sizzlers with Maple flavor but they don't really go with that flavor of omelet so I went into the emergency stash. You see, I live out here in the country where it's easy to lose electricity so I keep my propane tank mostly over half full and plenty of canned stuff. I was also the child of folks who went through the Great Depression. Lastly I am a man who was in the Service in the '60s so I ate a lot of Spam.

 Speaking of eating Spam, you know how to spot a phoney? That's someone screeching about "the working class" who does not have a few cans of Spam squirreled away. Now, of course, a lot of folks who used to be poor don't eat it anymore but they ain't the folks talking about the workers.

 So, anyhow, I always have several cans around, more during the winter when on the rare times it snows I might be stuck at home until the roads get clear. and out here in Resume Speed, that's when the ice melts. Anyhow, slice Spam thin and fry it brown and it is pretty good with eggs. Cut it into small chunks, fry it good with a big onion and some potatoes boiled enough to be soft after they too are fried and it's a meal even a plutocrat can enjoy, if he didn't know it was Spam!

 So, anyhow, the last time I was shopping I noticed a new flavor of Spam, Spam with Hormel Bacon added. So, I bought my tuna, my beef stew, my canned chicken, etc, and a can of that Spam. Well, that's what I fried to go with my omelet. Spam with Hormel Bacon is going to be included in the ememrgency stash from now on.

 What's not to like? It keeps forever, heck I ate Spam in the Service in the mid-late Sixties that was canned during WW2. Fried and drained it tastes okay and what the heck, Spam is smarter than Joe Biden and more useful than Obama. and,better looking than Debbie Whatshername Schultz.

 In other news I bought a near five pound trimmed brisket last week and oven cooked it using one of the recipes in my new cookbook. from Cookbook Resources. It's called Essential 3-Ingredient, 4 Ingredient and 5 Ingredient Cookbook. And it's 1,000 quick and easy recipes from apetizes to desserts, each with, you guessed it, only three four or five ingredients.

 We invited the twins and their kids out, only Dean and Stephanie were able, but then, with their three boys, maybe it was enough.Anyhow I used one of the three ingredient recipes, a bottle of liquid smoke rubbed in, cover with BBQ sauce and let it marinate overnight, bake covered at 275 degrees F for hours and hours, then refrigerate overnight, slice off any excess fat (no problem with that trimmed brisket)  pick the congealed  fat out of the drippings, slice, pour the dripping over and reheat.

 Easy-peasy. And it came out well. And the raw brisket was prettier than Pelosi. Ah, what a cow leaves on the pasture is prettier than Pelosi.

Grandkids, Near And Far

 Somehow I managed to get Blogger to notice these pics out of the over four dozen I put into this computer. And then Blogger decided that the album wasn't visible, after I had got these two. sometimes I hate Blogger.

 anyhow the top pic is just one of the kids at the party, the bottom kid is Josiah Dean, the birthday boy.

 If I can ever convince Blogger to find that album again I have pics of all the North Carolina boys, and a really nice couple of pis of my Mary Grace..

Clint At Eighty-Two

 The screams from the left are nearly deafening. Eastwood scored big with the empty-chair routine. Those that never watched Bob Newhart simply did not get the joke. Even those who didn't get the joke got something very important, though. They learned that one can speak against the Chicago Jeeeezus and not be struck by lightning.

 It's been a while, Obama was actually conferred lefty sainthood way back when he read a teleprompter at the 2004 Dem Convention. This false sainthood has made it impossible to ridicule this man, even at his most ridiculous. Ever wonder what the comics would have done had Governor Palin talked about the moment that the seas stop rising? What would they have said if Senator McCain had, at no small expense, cause to be erected a mess of faux Greek "marble" columns made of Styrofoam?

 We all know what those lefty "comics" would have done, yet there wasn't a peep about the feller that actually did that. Oh, sure, we blogged about it and passed Day By Day cartoons around. Yet it was all preaching to the choir, among the real mass of the country, we didn't count. If any of the comics or regular Journolists heard it the screams of RAAAAACIST! came out and we would get tied up in noting that not only were we not RAAAAACIST! but that the real racists were those who constantly noted race.

 Eastwood may have saved us from that. A smaller man could not go first in public, A small businessman would not have the freedom.  a smart man remembers not to tick off some large portion of his customer base.Airheads like Julia Roberts might completely alienate some forty-sixty percent of the public and survive, smaller acts like the Dixie Chicks couldn't.

 Well, Clint can. He doesn't have too much more time and he's wealthy enough to where he simply doesn't need the Hollywood Left. How can they hurt him? He doesn't need their money and he's already got pretty much very award there is. They can only try to vilify him and when they do that they piss off everyone who grew up on Rowdy Yates and The Man With No Name. When they claim senile dementia they tick off the single most active voters in the country, us over sixty-five.

 This goes way beyond what Eastwood said, it's what we have seen. Eastwood single-handedly got us permission to mock President Thinskin. He will not be able to handle it. When the left (and sometimes the right) hurled invectives about Dubya, he simply did not care. President George W. Bush is a man who is simply comfortable in his own skin. After all, Dubya managed to turn his life around. Dubya worships God and Christ. He went on with what he thought was right. President Obama worships his own reflection. Once this spreads out, Obama is a drunk, lying on the tracks of the Santa Fe, an accident waiting to happen. His own small nature and his hatred of ordinary people will bubble ovr.

 Yes, we're going to be called RAAAAACISTS! for it but, the word has lost it's effectiveness. Eastwood has shown that we no longer have to fear them. So we won't. It's Clint. It's the guys with the signs saying "I built this",, it's the TEA Party. We are in the American version of Berlin, 1989. And the left is powerless.

 It's not all sweetness and light, though. The left is lighting the fuse of race riots when they lose in November. The Democrats. The Party of the people. Yep. That's why they keep preaching division. We're gonna win but it won't be peaceful. Oh well, my kids have plenty of ammo.

I'm Twenty-Seven And Don't Look A Day Over Sixty-Five!

 Saturday was my twenty-seventh AA "birthday, the anniversary of my sobriety date. It was a double party, the more important part was Josiah's sixth birthday party held at McDonald's Germ Garden with about seven thousand screaming kids. I can only stand about two minutes at a time back there in Microbe Manor before I have to beat a retreat to the dubious refuge of the front of the McCafe.

 I don't really understand how the noise bothers me so much, seein' as how I'm just about deef as a post but there it is. So I shot a few pics and then went out and tried to get the laptop running. I managed to get it started and it worked fine, then I got it home and, dead, again. My new virus scan has been catching and blocking a portscan every few minutes, if I only knew what a portscan is.

 Meanwhile my big Dell has a Trojan and I don't think it's the kind sold only to prevent disease, meanwhile I don't have anywhere near the money it costs to have the professional geeks to defuse it.

 Anyhow, I'll be trying to post a few pics soon but other than that I've mostly been running from one place to another.

 Update: As often happens my dear sweet wife fell over again, getting into the house and this time she skinned her arm pretty good, causing a little bleeding. I whupped out my red bandanna to keep her from bleeding all over her clothes and, after we finally got inside, put the peroxide and anti-biotic salve on and then the band-aids. Told ya I carried bandannas for a reason! Although I really wish she'd learn to be careful.

Politics? No, Bandannas.

 I have had a bazillion political posts in my head since I last posted anything, each one half written before the next outrage hit. The main thing political is how we've become a pack, not a herd. Every time the left tries something and how desperate they seemto be. The actions against and for Chic-Fil-A, for instance. The Mitt didn't pay taxes and Mitt murdered my wife (who never had insurance under the company that was bought and closed down after Mitt had left Bain, and oh, by the way Bain was led then by an Obama bundler).

 All I really know about this year's race is that Bobo the Simpleminded could run the country better than this bunch of knaves and thieves. Whether is that clown Vice President Joe Biteme saying that Republicans want to put blacks in chains (anyone seen the black unemployment numbers lately") or King O-Bow-to -me claiming that Republicans want to deny money to "renewable energy" (Solyndra?) they are simply pitiful. And Americans have seen through them.O-bow-me will be lucky to win seven of the fifty-seven states.

 The Executive Branch of the Government of the United States of America has been reduced to a bunch of grubby bagmen and ward heelers. The only real question is if they will avoid tar and feathers.

 I read a blog post somewhere yesterday of some Japanese outfit making an electronic toilet paper dispenser and in the comments were a bunch of "what if there was a power failure while one was on the throne?" My answer is the bandanna, I never leave the house without at least two.

 And then, today we had a pair of doctor's appointments, me to have some stitches removed from the latest little skin cancer they find whenever they have a boat payment due, Linda Lou for a cortisone shots in the knee they'll rebuild next year. Well, my stitches came out no problem and I went back to pick up Linda Lou . She came out and we were walking down the hall when I noticed she had a trickle of blood coming out from under her band aid and running down her leg. A quick stop at the water fountain and the dampened bandanna solved the unsightly problem.

 Few people carry this essential tool anymore and they really should. Leave your car in a big parking lot? A bright bandanna tied to the radio antenna saves a big hassle. They are a Godsend at a wedding or funeral. I've passed them out in three directions. (Always double up for those events.)

 Separated in a crowd of some kind? A Bright red or yellow bandanna waved overhead can save a ton of frustration, even in the age of cell phones. A baby or small child running at either end? You guessed it. An emergency bandage or tourniquet? Grab a coffeepot off the campfire? Need just a little more force opening a jar? Some place between Midland and El Paso and the oil or temp light comes on?

 Power go out but you still have gas or a camp stove? Tie the right amount of coffee (or tea) into a bandanna, toss it in a pot of water and. viola! Need to wipe up a little spill somewhere that you never thought you'd see except through the service entrance? Need to sit on a bench you're unsure of? Ever had to deal with a large dead critter (or person) after it got really ripe? A little bit of gas on a bandanna  tied around one's mouth and nose prevents a big problem. This works for almost any foul smell so in case you must go downwind of an OWS crowd...

 Tie one around your neck in hot weather, not only will it keep your shirt just a tad drier and the sweat drying on the bandanna helps cool you off.

 At the rifle range in hot weather? Swab the outside of the barrel with a wet bandanna or, even better, a bunch of ice in the rag.

 City people mostly carry handkerchiefs or tissues.  Either will work for some little things. I could've wiped the blood off Linda Lou's leg with a handkerchief and then never get the bloodstain out. On that bandanna no one will ever notice. And they're cheap enough that I can give one away when needed, even to a total stranger (and I have, many times) and I never feel the pinch.

 As I say, I always carry two except when I carry more. One is always old and very soft for things like cleaning eyeglasses and such, one is always new enough to be real bright. In over fifty years of carrying them I'm still finding new uses.

Ted Cruz And His Big Win

 So Linda Lou and I went to vote today. We voted for the most conservative candidate we could find which seemed to be Ted Cruz. Now I do not know exactly how much more conservative Cruz is than Dewhurst, I do know that the second Dewhurst went into the runoffs his campaign got almost as nasty as an Obama campaign. Almost. I also know that Dewhurst was just a little too chummy with the Democrats in the Texas Senate. So, I became a Cruz man.

 Those who read this blog know that my Linda Lou is semi-crippled. We took a long time to vote, primarily because she can't hardly walk, even on her walker.  Where we had our regular primary vote the Republicans and the Democrats were separated by tens of yards, today, at a different polling place, they  were each at the ends of a fairly long table. Now because we were very slow there were some eight people behind us by the time we finished. (No one complained). None of those folks signed up on the Donk end.

 I will say this, though, the Democrats were as helpful as the Republicans were, and it took some doing to get Linda Lou off her walker and the electronic voting doohicky set up for her in the chair. I would submit that small town and country Democrats are about as conservative, and more friendly, as big city Yankee Republicans.

 So, now it's some twenty minutes to one AM and Cruz is around twelve points up. This is big. I mean big. The lord gods of the RNC had chosen Dewhurst, what is this upstart doing, jumping his place in line and who are those awful TEA Party folks to go against their choice?

 The RNC will probably not learn anything from this but that's their problem. The RNC can go the way of the Whigs for all of me.

 I didn't know a whole lot about some of the other races so I just went with the endorsements of people I trust.

 Then we ran a couple more errands. We dropped a box, one of those fake Tupperware types, of peanut butter fudge to an electrician that wouldn't take money for a Westinghouse circuit breaker we needed . He was still in his shop on a Saturday when I went to the electrical supply house that was closed. So I stuck my head in and he hado ne. I tried to give him money but he wouldn't take it. It has long been my policy that no one should ever regret doing me a favor so, since he wouldn't take money...

 Then we went to Half Price Books, spent some $96.00 and change. Praise the Lord we don't get there every week.

 And a box of CCI Mini Mag .22LR hollowpoints. I have a lot of Remington and some Winchester .22s and they shoot okay but the Mini Mags give the best groups out of the Shilen Barrel of my .22.

A Nation Of Strangers

Another mass shooting. These things never happened in my grandparents' day. They didn't have television or air conditioning, they had porches. They knew their neighbors and neighborhood.

 Over at The Ace of Spades they tout a pair of pictures, the Tucson shooter and this nut in Colorado. The expressions on those two faces are more or less identical. It's really not that hard to notice a nutcase, and today we see them all the time. Mostly wandering the streets having loud arguments with someone nobody else can see. Most are mainly just a pain in the butt, making noise, pooping in doorways, panhandling, etc.

 They would actually be better off in an institution if only we could find staff that doesn't either abuse them or ignore their needs, along with doctors that didn't believe they owned the patients for the practice of bizarre theories.

 After the left tried very hard to make the Tucson shooting a right wing plot the public eventually found out that Loughner was an apolitical nut who should have been involuntarily committed if the local law enforcement had been doing the job. He would have then had to jump through more hoops to get his gun, perhaps even discouraged by the initial official refusal.

 We will probably eventually read or hear about James Holmes, the accused shooter being somewhat strange. I've already read about "shy but intelligent". The simple reality is that no one just wakes up and decides to off a bunch of strangers. It takes time for such a mental state to grow. In the old days people would notice. As we saw in Tucson, people did notice but, again, law enforcement failed. In my grandparents' day he would have been hauled downtown, perhaps with a minor tuneup along the way. The second or third time he would have been committed.

 We let crazies roam the streets because of their "rights". Nobody mentions the rights of the people who have to put up with them. And the Loughners and Holmses have their "rights". No one mentions the rights of the folks in that theatre. The same crowd that excoriates the Second Amendment, the NRA and the Tea Party would never allow the Holmses and the Loughners to be locked up. That would be judgemental. Somehow a lack of judgement has become a virtue. No wonder we have Joe Effin' Biden as VP.

Hodgdon's Eraser 223 And A Couple Of Shotguns

 Toward the beginning of the year the Hodgdon Powder people announced, with great fanfare, a new powder geared toward the high volume semi auto rifle crowd. This powder is the right burning rate for cartridges like the .223 (5.56 NATO) and the .308 (7.62 NATO.) and suchlike cartridges. It's a little fast for my beloved .30-06.

 Hodgdon's literature ballyhoos the fact that this new powder contains a secret ingredient that reduces or eliminates copper jacket fouling. This is a big deal to folks like prairie dog shooters and the military who might find it advantages to be shooting rather than cleaning.

 Now the thing Hodgdon is not saying is that this revolutionary secret ingredient in the powder isn't the first use of such things. A couple of Alliant's powder have it and Ramshot's TAC has something doing the same thing, if not the same "secret ingredient". This isn't to say that such a thing is useless, just that it's not a brand new thing.

 I haven't been into that type of shooting, I've been out of the service for well over forty years and I don't live in Prairie Dog country. So I corespondent with a couple of pals and got some non-advertising  words about it. One Pard claims that he has two .223s one that has a rough barrel that starts losing accuracy after only around fifteen-twenty rounds, the other with a smooth tube that keeps it's accuracy through a three hundred round shoot.  This Pard claims that the rough barrel keeps it's accuracy through a hundred round test and cleans up with only a few patches wet with Sweet's 7.62 solvent where before it was a task cleaning it after only a couple twenty round mags. He also claims that this new Hodgdon powder gets awfully small groups on a paper target.

 Another Pard is a National Match shooter. He shoots the .308 and also reports good accuracy and easier cleaning.

 It's important to note that this, nor any other, powder will clean copper deposits out of a barrel, the chemistry merely helps to resist causing such deposits. Start with a clean tube. In my near dotage I shoot mostly black powder  and lead alloy "boolits" and durned few smokeless rounds except from my .22s. I still have some smokeless though. Mainly for jacketed hollowpont rounds in my defensive guns. Anyhow, if you are a high volume shooting or are simply lazy, give this powder a try, me, I'm waiting for the no-leaning ingredient black powder.

 The Savage Arms people have a couple of new pump shotguns out, geared toward the non wealthy. Each has a short barrel model available for those thinking about slingin' buckshot. Each model is under $300.00. The more interesting to me is the one with the bottom feed, bottom eject receiver like the old Winchester 12 or Ithaca Mod 37. After all, the fewer openings, the fewer chances for junk to get in and tie up the action. This model, with a synthetic stock and rifle-type sights has an MSRP of 270.00

 The other one is a side eject gun like the Mossberg or Remington 870. With that odd pistol grip hanging down and only a bead sight it has an MSRP of $235.00. Each has several variations, including at least one switch-barrel, giving the owner a chance to switch from a bird gun to a defense gun. Anyhow, one can look at www.SavageArms.com There is a real advantage to having at least a couple knock around guns where a scratch or ding won't bring tears.

Yankee DoodleDandy

 Stephanie and Dean's youngest, Karson had his birthday party on the fourth, we drove up and sang "Happy Birthday" and watched the pinata and opening of the presents. The kids broke a pinata, a good time was had by all.

Still Alive, Still Offline

Still offline until we pay the Verizon bill. Just a note to say that we're both still okay. It's funny. between our insurance and Medicare we pay nothing for doctor visits and hospitalisation. Yet the hospital is so durned far away that it's put us way behind. Oh well, we're muddling through. A couple more months and we're gonna be caught up.

 When I get back to typing on a real keyboard I'll have to write a bit about a new powder from Hodgdon, CFE223. A pard of mine has been using it and gave me a nice report. Also I have to mention the new Stevens shotguns, built for defense and very inexpensive.One lists for less then $250.00 and has bottom feed and eject like the old Model 12 Winchester or the Ithica Mod37. Very handy in inclement weather, And it's got the sights for hunting with slugs , just in case you have any venison in thick cover.

 Meanwhile the Supremes will announce if we are free people or live at the beck and call of the Nanny Bloombergs of the world. It's really long past time we told all those nannies that we are grown ups and don't need or want them. What would happen if everyone in New York brought their own great big cups, bought two 16 ounce sodas and poured them into their own big cups? Then carried them to city hall? It's really about time for around ten thousand folks to pull a LEAVE US ALONE Rally.

 Anyhow I hope to be using a keyboard again, soon so, until then, Adios