Month: May 2005

I. Am. DONE.

Class is (finally) out. I get on a plane at 9:00AM tomorrow and go HOME. Not that Houston isn’t a nice place, but it’s not home. I’ve done learned all they had to teach me (which was disappointingly less than I expected, but more than I knew before). I’m tired, and glad it’s over.

Normal posting may resume Tuesday.

Maybe.

Oh, and I noticed that I missed my second blogiversary. My first three posts went up May 14, 2003, and I had nothing pithy to post about yesterday (not that I could have posted it – the wireless signal here is less than stellar.) Oh well. Maybe next year.

Screw Sith, Show Serenity!.

I’m in complete agreement with Dodd at Ipse Dixit and this cartoon is BANG on:

(Sorry about the lack of posting. I’ve been muy busy and the wireless connection here at the hotel has been sporadic.)

That Was an Enjoyable Evening!.

I just got back from having dinner with Jim the Layabout Sailor from Smoke on the Water and we were joined (somewhat belatedly) by his friend Marcus from On the Patio. We had pizza and beer (well, they had beer) and shot the shit breeze about guns, Airboss, Kim du Toit, The Pussification of the Western Male, guns, Boomershoot (next year! I hope), and various and sundry other topics.

Did I mention guns?

It was a good time. But it’s pushing 10:00PM here in Houston, so it’s time to call it a night.

Well, the Ratio is About the Same.

By now everyone’s heard about the LA Sheriff’s deputies who fired something on the order of 120 rounds at a suspect. Four rounds actually hit the suspect (none life-threatening). One round hit one of the ten deputies. Thats a ratio of 30:1 for hits on the intended target.

It’s nice to know that police accuracy is consistent. I was reminded of this post from Sept. 19, 2003 where Thomas Martin McGouey attempted to commit suicide-by-cop in Tennessee. At 30 yards, Mr. McGouey (with a target helpfully drawn on his bare chest) pointed an empty air pistol at six officers.

Twenty-eight rounds fired, one hit.

In the shoulder.

Way to go, guys!

Maybe these deputies should take some pointers from Tucson Police officer Richard Silva, or New Mexico State Police Leutenant Don Day.

OK, I’m in Houston.

Arrived this afternoon at George Bush International a little late because of the weather. The trip to the hotel took damned near an hour (haven’t you Texans seen rain before?) Checked in to the hotel and finally got something to eat, and now I’m blogging on the Holiday Inn wireless internet access from my laptop. Very convenient!

But I’m tired, so I’m going to surf some sites, read a little from one of the books I brought, and call it a night.

Sorry, Ft. Worth, But Thanks for the B-36!.

The Pima Air and Space Museum here in Tucson will be receiving a new addition soon, one of the last B-36 bombers still in existence. It seems that the aircraft has been lovingly restored, but the museum that it was to be the centerpiece of just couldn’t get built, so the Air Force has decided to relocate it from Texas to Tucson.

Now, without question the group of Texans that busted their hind-ends on the restoration are pissed, but at least they can know that their bird is going to a damned nice facility that will display it properly. Then, if they can ever get their museum built, they might stand a chance of getting it back.

When my father was in the Air Force based out of Kadena, they had B-36’s on the base. I’ve seen a lot of the slides (remember those?) that he took of the flightline. This should be interesting. The B-36 is a BIG aircraft, with six turning and four burning (six piston engines and four jet engines). I’ll have to make another trip to the museum when she’s assembled and on display.

New Members of the Blogroll.

I just added Michael Yon and SFAlphageek’s Nothing to See Here, Move Along… to the blogroll. As you’re aware, this blog is primarily oriented towards individual rights. I leave the milblogging to those who do that so well, but I’ve been reading these two guys with increasing frequency lately, and their stuff is excellent. SF Alphageek is a National Guard Special Forces member now back from the Sandbox. Michael Yon is an embedded blogging reporter currently in Iraq, who is ex-SF.

If you want a feel for what’s really going on over there, spend some time perusing their archives.

Via Joe Huffman from The View from North Central Idaho (the Boomershoot guy.) It’s a five-parter, starting off with a piece by Abigale Kohn (author of Shooters: Myths and Realities of America’s Gun Cultures), with replies by Don Kates, journalist Wendy Kaminer (who I was unfamiliar with) and Professor Michael Krauss. Then Kohn comments on her commenters. It’s entitled Straight Shooting on Gun Control. The opening essay by Ms. Kohn somewhat echoes my observations from last month in Perhaps the Momentum Really Has Shifted, in that things appear to be going our way for a change, but I think her conclusions drawn from that are erroneous.

Spoiler alert: I agree completely with Don Kates. Wendy Kaminer has a burr under her saddle about the NRA, but I tend to agree with her regarding the NRA’s support for the War on (some) Drugs™ (if not on anything else). I was also unfamiliar with Prof. Krauss, but I like him! Check this quote:

Abigail Kohn clearly has come to a nuanced understanding of gun owners. That would be unremarkable for the majority of Americans who already understand gun owners (because they are, or are closely related to, gun owners). The fact that Kohn finds her understanding noteworthy is an indication of the ignorance that prevails among those who have a negative attitude toward guns, among whom I assume Kohn once counted herself. In that sense, her essay reads much like an article urging people not to fear the Jews because they don’t really drink the blood of Christian babies: Reading it makes one sad that it’s needed, but perhaps it will do some good. So two cheers for this essay.

Yowsa! You tell ’em Professor!

He gets better from there.

I recently read Kohn’s book, and I enjoyed seeing the gun-rights world through the eyes of a former gun-phobe, but Kohn still hasn’t gotten a grip on the realities of guns and gun owners in this country, nor apparently, on the efficacy of “gun control” on crime. But read the piece. It’s very interesting. Thanks, Joe!