Author: Kevin

Quote of the Day – Another Reason to Attend GBR-V

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One of the things the Gun Blogger’s Rendezvous does is raise money for a very deserving charity – Project Valour-IT. For today’s quote of the day, some words from the founder of that charity, Maj. Chuck Zeigenfuss, who does not care for journalist Michael Yon all that much:

You recently said you couldn’t adopt a kid because you couldn’t return to war. Guess what, Mikey? I go to war because of my family, because I want them to live in a better world. This is me after 34 reconstructive surgeries (and more to go.) Guess what else, Mikey, I am going back to war, Again. I am going to go back to Iraq right before Christmas. How do you think the kids will enjoy that, considering last time daddy went away, he died several times before coming home? I know sacrifice, but not like they do. You, mikey, have no idea what personal sacrifice means. If you write her a nice letter, maybe my 7-year old daughter could explain it to you.

THAT left a mark! There’s very much more, along with some pretty graphic graphics, but I strongly recommend the entire piece. I’ve met the Major at GBRs II, III and IV. He is a very no-bullshit guy. He and his family are currently stationed in Hawaii as he prepares for his upcoming deployment to Iraq, living in insufficient housing, and unable to get sufficient housing before he ships out. Anybody over there able to help him out?

The Bowling Pin Shoot was a Success

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It took a while to get the thing off the ground (where hopefully it will stay) but I had eleven people show up to shoot it, and it ran from 8:00AM until after 1:00PM. We had shooters of all different skill levels, and everyone shot a LOT and (I think) had a good time. The overall winner was a fifteen year-old kid shooting a Sig, who started off slow, but got FAST towards the end. To add insult to injury, he won the drawing for the prize pot, too! If anyone took video of one of the head-to-head matches and wants to forward it to me, I’ll post it.

I need new tables now, though. I think they took more hits than the pins did!

T-Minus 60 Days and Counting

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I’m making my hotel reservations today. Since Reno is just 15 hours away (and I’m bringing enough stuff to make a GREAT “junk-on-the-bunk” spread) I’m driving as usual, but getting to Reno isn’t really that expensive if you must fly.

Dallas to Reno: $339

Knoxville to Reno: $440 (OK, that one’s a little spendy)

LA to Reno: $169

Baton Rouge to Reno: $420

Cleveland to Reno: $324

Indianapolis to Reno: $358

Seattle to Reno: $234

Orlando to Reno: $328

Hey, if reader and commenter Phil R. can come all the way from Cambridge Oxford, England to attend, you can come from wherever you live! As Mr. Completely says:

The Gun Blogger Rendezvous is like no other event as it’s all about the gun bloggers themselves. We don’t have a big name celebrity speaker where the attendees sit in the seats and are basically spectators. That’s not to say that there won’t be some really interesting people there, though. Last year Alan Gura was there, and we all got to learn a lot about the legal stuff he’s been up to lately from an insider’s perspective.

The Rendezvous is not a side event for some other much larger happening like the NRA convention. No, at the Rendezvous the attendees themselves are the reason to be there. The discussions in the hospitality rooms go well into the night every night of the Rendezvous.

Sure, during the day we get in plenty of shooting, including rifles and pistols at targets out to 1,000 yards, Steel Challenge against the clock, even with a bit of coaching from Molly Smith, who’s not only a blogger, but is also the Steel Challenge Pre-Teen World Champion! Plans are also underway for some Cowboy Fast Draw practice under the watchful eye of Quick Cal Eilrich. Quick Cal is the “Intergalactic Fast Draw” Champion (Not really, I made that up, but if it DID exist, Cal would win it!) in addition to numerous National and World Championships. I am also looking into some range time at a new indoor lead-free range in Reno that rents guns, including FULL AUTO goodies! Interested? I thought you would be!

So c’mon, make your plans now! I want to meet you, or see you again!

Quote of the Day – de Tocqueville Edition

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I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbours and ample rivers – and it was not there; in her fertile lands and boundless prairies – and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good – and if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

This quote has been attributed to Alexis de Toqueville, but it’s apparently apocryphal, like the quote attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler. It has become “an old adage” however, and remains true – as the “Tytler” quote remains accurate.

Quote of the Day – Education Edition

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From Theodore Dalrymple’s speech at the Harvard Club, November 2001:

One of the things that has happened in Britain, as I said, is that people are radically disconnected from their past – from the past of the country in which they live. To such an extent, as I’ve suggested to you, that the vast majority of people don’t even know when the Second World War was. Out of hundreds of sixteen to twenty year-old patients whom I’ve seen, very few – in fact, I think about three – have known with any degree of accuracy when the Second World War took place, and they’re not even capable of deducing from the fact that there was a Second World War that there was a First World War.

And in the circumstances, I regard it as a triumph when they tell me that the Second World War took place in the eighteenth Century, because that means that they know that there was another century. And quite often if I ask them anything about history, not just of their own country, but of the entire world, what they say is, “I don’t know because I wasn’t born then.” As if one could not be expected to know anything other than by personal acquaintance. And our educators, I think, have a lot to answer for because they have suggested that education should be of relevance to the children’s lives as they are lived, and of course the whole point of education is to make the world beyond that relevant, and of course interesting and important to them, otherwise they are utterly enclosed in the indescribably miserable world in which they find themselves.

I Found Javier

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Disgraced ‘Historian’ Michael Bellesiles’ Fishy War Story

In his Chronicle of Higher Education article he reports teaching a course in U.S. military history last semester, 18th century to the present, and the disturbing traumatic suffering of a student he calls Ernesto. Ernesto’s brother, Javier, had recently enlisted in the Army, and as the semester progressed was sent to Iraq, saw combat, was shot in the head by a sniper (too seriously to be evacuated to the Army’s medical facilities in Germany), and after some weeks died.

Wait, I thought it was Javier that was crying . . .

(For those who don’t get it, you don’t read the comments enough.)

Read the whole peice. Bellesiles really does have a teaching position at Central Connecticut State University, but the rest of the article is … interesting.

UPDATE 7/7: Jim Lindgren follows up over at The Volokh Conspiracy