Author: Kevin

The Earth Abides

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Haven’t been blogging much, so here’s something to tide you over ’till I get back to it.

Amazing Sights (Can’t embed it.)

The song is “Night Ride Across the Caucasus” sung by Loreena McKennitt, and the lyrics are:

Ride on through the night, ride on
Ride on through the night, ride on

There are visions; there are memories
There are echoes of thundering hooves
There are fires; there is laughter
There’s the sound of a thousand doves

In the velvet of the darkness
By the silhouette of silent trees
They are watching, waiting
They are witnessing life’s mysteries

Cascading stars on the slumbering hills
They are dancing as far as the sea
Riding o’er the land, you can feel its gentle hand
Leading on to its destiny

Take me with you on this journey
Where the boundaries of time are now tossed
In cathedrals of the forest
In the words of the time is now lost

Find the answers; ask the questions
Find the boles of the clear ancient tree
Take me dancing; take me singing
I ride on too waits the sea
I ride on

In cathedrals of the forest
In the words of the tongues now lost

Find the answers, ask the questions
Find the roots of an ancient tree
Take me dancing, take me singing
I’ll ride on till the moon meets the sea

Ride on through the night, ride on
Ride on through the night, ride on
Ride on through the night, ride on
Ride on through the night, ride on

I suggest full screen, and crank it. It’s worth your eight minutes.

Quote of the Day – Historical Edition

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Checking my referrer logs, I found a link to a very old post here, a reproduction of a rec.guns post by Crystal River, Florida pawnbroker J. David Phillips. I found out from that link that Mr. Phillips, the survivor of a samurai sword attack by a deranged customer several years ago, has sometime since passed on.

Looking for an obituary on Mr. Phillips, I stumbled across something else entirely, though it was also related to Mr. Phillips through the story of that sword attack.  From this FiringLine thread comes today’s Quote of the Day:

Bottom line: this woman couldn’t get a clue if she smeared herself with clue musk and did the clue mating dance in the middle of a field full of horny clues at the height of the clue mating season.

Read the post this comes from. It’s a perfect assessment.  And applicable to more than just clueless columnists.

Yes. Yes I Do.

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(credit: Michelle Malkin)

224 years ago this day, the Constitution of the United States of America, the founding legal document of this nation (as opposed to the founding philosophical document, the Declaration of Independence) was signed by representatives of 12 the original 13 states (Rhode Island didn’t send anyone).

Sometime in the ensuing two-and-a-quarter centuries, the oath that every elected officeholder takes, specifically to

..support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

has become meaningless. Mere platitudes uttered to put an “X” in the proper box.

The Constitution has become, through decades of erosion, undermining and entropy, a façade behind which politicians and pundits, activists and enemies hide.

P.J. O’Rourke famously said “The U.S. Constitution is less than a quarter the length of the owner’s manual for a 1998 Toyota Camry, and yet it has managed to keep 300 million of the world’s most unruly, passionate and energetic people safe, prosperous and free.” I have said that the Constitution may not be the single greatest work ever set to paper, but it beats whatever it is that the government is using these days.

Happy Constitution Day! May we continue to remember it with reverence, and hope that its equal may some day return, and keep an unruly, passionate and energetic people safe, prosperous and free.

Politically Incorrect Joke

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Got this one via email from my brother:

The Dead Parrot


At dawn the telephone rings, “Hello, Senor Rod? This is Ernesto, the caretaker at your country house.”


“Ah yes, Ernesto. What can I do for you? Is there a problem?”


“Um, I am just calling to advise you, Senor Rod, that your parrot, he is dead.


“My parrot? Dead? The one that won the International competition?”


“Si, Senor, that’s the one.”


“Damn! That’s a pity! I spent a small fortune on that bird. What did he die from?


“From eating the rotten meat, Senor Rod.”


“Rotten meat? Who the hell fed him rotten meat?”


“Nobody, Senor. He ate the meat of the dead horse.”


“Dead horse? What dead horse?”


“The thoroughbred, Senor Rod.”


“My prize thoroughbred is dead?


“Yes, Senor Rod, he died from all that work pulling the water cart.”


“Are you insane? What water cart?”


“The one we used to put out the fire, Senor.”


“Good Lord! What fire are you talking about, man?”


“The one at your house, Senor! A candle fell and the curtains caught on
fire.”


“What the hell? Are you saying that my mansion is destroyed because of a
candle?!”


“Yes, Senor Rod.”


“But there’s electricity at the house! What was the candle for?”


“For the funeral, Senor Rod.”


“WHAT BLOODY FUNERAL??!!”


“Your wife’s, Senor Rod. She showed up very late one night and I thought she was a thief, so I shot her with your new Kreighoff Limited Edition Custom Gold Engraved Trap Special with the custom-made Wenig Exhibition Grade Stock. “


SILENCE……….. LONG SILENCE………VERY LONG SILENCE…………..


“Ernesto, if you scratched that shotgun, you’re in deep shit.”

Hey, this is a gun blog. The joke’s got a gun in it….

Quote of the Day – Tam (Again) Edition

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She brings the socio-political snark with a vengeance:

And seriously, Egypt: I have to admire the pluck, but how many ass-whippings do you need to take at the hands of the Israelis before you realize that your days of martial glory were buried with Ramses II? You’ve been conquered by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, French, and British. The only nation you’ve defeated in war since the discovery of iron is Libya, and they can’t even kick their own ass without outside help.

The French. That’s gotta hurt.

Falling Down on the Job

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Uh, I’m supposed to post pictures and videos and comments on the just-passed Gun Blogger Rendezvous.

Fail.

Well, not complete fail, but I didn’t get any video, and not too many pictures.  For once I did more shooting with firearms than with my camera.  Plus, I ran a squad at the Steel Challenge day, and had no opportunity to do much of anything with the camera.  Others have done (just scroll down) a fine job, though, including U.S. Citizen (keep scrolling there, too) who got a shot of me shooting my target AR, and Davidwhitewolf who got one of me shooting my XP-100, neither of which firearms have been featured here.  Mentioned in passing, yes.  Photographed, no.

Anyway, hopefully I’ll get my meager and paltry collection of photos up this weekend, plus a long list of “thank you’s” to the supporters of the GBR who contributed this year.  I’m still waiting to hear from Mr. Completely how much money was raised for Project Valour-IT.

Quote of the Day – The Donald Edition

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I’m sure this is old, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it:

We are going to be gifted with a Health Care plan we are forced to purchase, and fined if we do not, which purportedly covers at least ten million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he does not understand it, passed by a Congress that did not read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President who smokes, with funding administered by a Treasury chief who did not pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security & Medicare, all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that is broke!! What the hell could possibly go wrong? — Donald Trump

I Should’ve Gone to the Fast Draw Event

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Home!  Finally.

I left Reno Sunday morning about 9:40 after breakfast with those conscious enough to make it.  I wanted to get an early start home so I could either stop in Kingman, AZ or drive on through to Tucson if I felt up to it. 

Unfortunately, when I got to Schurz, Nevada, about 100 miles out of Reno, Nevada Highway 95 was closed due to an earlier fatality accident.

Three and a half hours later, I headed onward towards home.  I got into a hotel room in Las Vegas about 10:00PM.  I pulled into my garage this afternoon at about 2:30.  LONG trip.  Still, worth it!

Pictures and some limited video once I have a chance to upload it, sort it, and post it.  Another great GBR!  (Though I didn’t win a firearm – again!)