Month: October 2008

Quote of the Day

KevinLeave a comment

Quote of the Day

For years we have tolerated incompetence, corruption, dishonesty — and yes, greed — in government while looking the other way. On those rare occasions when politicians have made principled stands, we have rewarded them with a firestorm of political assault, full-throated media ridicule and criticism, and enormous financial pressure from lobbyists pouring money into the pockets of those who purport to represent the people. We have elected a government of the people, in the most literal and disgraceful sense: we have elected, and kept in office, those who share our desire for self-gratification and materialistic acquisition at the expense of character, moral integrity, honesty, and prudence. The cesspool which is our current Congress is what we have reaped by our own actions — or perhaps more accurately, by our inaction. We have elected those politicians who are like us in every way — and we hate them for it. They are, after all, created in our own image. – The Doctor is In, Surveying the Abyss

This was not the best quote from the piece, but it was one of the few capable of standing alone. Read the short essay in its entirety. Several times.

Tough History Coming, indeed.

H/t to Van der Leun.

I Think I’ve Sold the Mustang. . .

KevinLeave a comment

I Think I’ve Sold the Mustang. . .

And to celebrate, I thought long and hard about buying a Fulton Armory Peerless M-14 Match/Target rifle. VERY spendy, but everything I’ve read about it says it’s the finest of its type available, and capable of excellent accuracy. I’m going to Boomershoot in April, and they recommend that you bring a spare rifle (just in case). I thought this might be just the ticket.

So I emailed Fulton Armory about availability (the web page does say “Call for Availability!”) Here’s the bad news:

Unfortunately we are running approx 12-18 months for FA M14 Peerless rifles.

We are very sorry.
Thank you for the interest.

You can’t be any more sorry than I am. Dammit.

HOME!

KevinLeave a comment

HOME!

Just got home a few minutes ago. It’s nice to travel and see friends, but there’s no place like home.

With high-speed internet service.

I’ve been disconnected for two days. I think I’m suffering from severe withdrawal. I’ve got some catching-up to do, then maybe some more posting.

L8R!

UPDATE: DirtCrashr has an after-action report.

We’re Either Dedicated or Crazy

KevinLeave a comment

Well, we held the 3rd annual Gunblogger’s Rendezvous shoot at the Palomino Valley Gun Club range today, and it was FREAKING COLD! AND windy. It wasn’t so bad when the wind wasn’t blowing, but when it was. . .

I think I may still have toes.

I came back, unfortunately, with a lot more ammo than I expected to, but I was able to easily hit the 400 yard gong with the Remington 700, and I whacked one at a bit over 600 yards a couple of times, despite the wind. Still, I’m not up to the skill level of Phil of Random Nuclear Strikes who can consistently dust pool cue chalk cubes (about 7/8″ on a side) at 200 yards.

I’ve got to try that.

I hit the 400 yard gong (rather easily) with a .308 pistol too. More on that later, but I’m finding this idea very intriguing. I also hit the 55 gallon drum at over 950 yards with US Citizen’s Barrett M82A1. That thing is awe-inspiring and sinus-clearing at the same time.

We have only two more planned events – both involve stuffing our faces. Dinner tonight at 6:00 followed by a bull session into the wee hours, and then breakfast tomorrow morning before we break up and head our separate ways.

This Rendezvous, despite the lack of a couple of previous attendees, is still the best-attended one so far. I think next year will be even better, especially now that we’re getting more industry attention. Sponsors this year were Brownell’s (their top-of-the-line range bag, and a lot of other stuff – 3rd year), Hi-Point firearms (a pistol – 3rd year), Crimson Trace (T-shirts & hats -1st year) and Para-USA (another pistol – 1st year), FrontSite ($2000 worth of training – 1st year), Dillon Precision (Border-shift ammo bag – 2nd year), plus the NRA gave us a bunch of great swag. Cabela’s gave us a guided tour of their Reno store, and let us play in their arcades for free. It’s been a great weekend.

Excuse me, one of my ears just fell off. I have to go find some superglue and put it back on now. . .

Quote of the Day

KevinLeave a comment

Quote of the Day

Has anyone actually seen Wayne LaPierre pull a trigger on any firearm?

A gunblogger who shall remain anonymous, asked of Ashley Varner at yesterday’s meet-n-greet/show-n-tell here at the Rendezvous.

“Slight Chance of Snow” My ASS!

KevinLeave a comment

“Slight Chance of Snow” My ASS!

The weather weenies predicted earlier this week that there would be a slight 20-30% chance of “snow flurries” on Friday and Saturday.

I woke up to snow flurries this morning.

But we just drove back from Cabela’s through a freaking snowstorm.

Pictures and a little bit of video to be attached to this post later, when I have a bit more time. Mr. Completely has our days scheduled in 15-minute increments, and I need to get back to the hospitality suite for the NRA’s presentation.

If this keeps up, I’m wondering if we’ll be able to get to the range tomorrow.

UPDATED for those of you unfamiliar with the falling white stuff. This is what I saw out my hotel room window at 7:00 AM:

http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/DSCF0813.flv
And this is what I saw out that same window about 4:00 PM:

http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/DSCF0817.flv
Others have taken a lot of still pictures of the mountains around Reno covered in snow, but I wanted to give you a sense of the intensity.

Quote of the Day

KevinLeave a comment

From someone who should know. . .

This is Mrs. Ly Chho, born of Chinese parents in Cambodia, raised and schooled in Taiwan, naturalized American citizen for fourteen years, and new NRA member, along with her husband who couldn’t make it with her to the NRA press conference yesterday evening because he had to work late.


Unfortunately, Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox were a bit late arriving, so the TV cameras left in the middle of their announcement in order to make the 6:30 news deadline, but (unsurprisingly) the NRA has officially endorsed McCain/Palin.

But that’s not, precisely, what this post is about.

After the announcement, Wayne and Chris took comments from the audience – mostly white people over the age of 40 (mostly well over) from what I could see – but this diminutive asian woman stood to ask her question and was recognized.

She asked, as best I can recall:

I am a new NRA member. I have been a citizen for only fourteen years. I believe in the Constitution and the Second Amendment, and when I see Obama, I see Communism, and I am afraid. I believe he is going to win the election. Do you have any plans in place if this happens?

Wayne LaPierre responded that we all have the blood of the patriots who threw the tea into Boston Harbor and stood on the bridge at Lexington and Concord in our veins (metaphorically speaking), and that the NRA would never rest, yada, yada, yada.

But that was a powerful statement from Mrs. Chho. I caught up to her to ask her about herself so that I could write this post. At the moment, the Chho’s do not own a firearm, but they are planning to get one as soon as they’ve gone through some NRA basic training. Mrs. Chho explained that she was educated in Taiwan, and had studied the U.S. Constitution, and had chosen to come to America and become a citizen because of that document. She loves and respects what America is, and Obama frightens her deeply.

And she should know.

Thank you, Mrs. Chho. You are another example of someone who is an American because she thinks she’s an American. It doesn’t matter what her ancestry is, or where she was born or where she was educated. She’s an American, and was one long before she made her citizenship oath.

Damned straight I’m a believer in American Exceptionalism.

Quote of the Decade

KevinLeave a comment

In honor of the now $800,000,000,000 bailout and other government takeover of the economy, a prophetic repeat from December 13, 2003:

I predict that the Bush administration will be seen by freedom-wishing Americans a generation or two hence as the hinge on the cell door locking up our freedom. When my children are my age, they will not be free in any recognizably traditional American meaning of the word. I’d tell them to emigrate, but there’s nowhere left to go. I am left with nauseating near-conviction that I am a member of the last generation in the history of the world that is minimally truly free.

Rev. Donald Sensing at Sense of Events: Bush Republicanism = Roosevelt Democratism?

Read Rev. Sensing’s whole piece. Consider the last nearly five years since that piece was written.

I wrote the Reverend yesterday morning asking him if, five years later on, his opinion had changed any.

Read his reply.

Sometimes a Picture Suggests a Story. . .

KevinLeave a comment

Sometimes a Picture Suggests a Story. . .

Checking my referral logs today, I came across this (click for full size):


The referring URL was a post at Something… and Half of Something from July of last year. Entitled Gay Rights, it linked to a piece I wrote about where a self-described gay liberal had his own epiphany and decided to purchase a gun for self-defense. The reader of that piece then clicked through to my post, Ignorance = Fear. Education is the Key. Interestingly, though, his next click was to my earlier post, “(I)t’s most important that all potential victims be as dangerous as they can,” and when he left the site, it was to visit Publicola’s list of people who offer an introduction to shooting.

Unfortunately the reader was in Amsterdam.

Now, putting together the scant evidence, I am led to the conclusion that this reader is probably gay, and probably worried. As reported by GayPatriot, assaults on gays in Amsterdam have been increasing, and increasingly brazen, but they’re being downplayed in the media. A 2005 post at Modern Tribalist details a first-hand account of such a beating, with (broken) links to more. The blog Narcissistic Views on News/Politics reports: Amsterdam Now World Leader in anti-Gay Violence.

I wonder if my reader was a recent victim, or nearly one, and has had his own Awakening?

I have no idea what the laws are in the Netherlands with respect to firearms for self-defense, but somehow I doubt they’re very “liberal” (in the original meaning of the term.)

On the Road

KevinLeave a comment

On the Road

Made it to Bullhead City, AZ in 5.5 hours. Used a half-tank of gas in the Altima. I’ll figure out the mileage tomorrow when I fill up for the trip to Reno.

I’m kinda interested in the fact that we bloggers will apparently get to meet both Chris Cox and Wayne LaPierre tomorrow when they make their big announcement.

At least I will if I can get there early enough.