The United travel vouchers have been used. The Redneck Engineer will be coming this year, flying in from Texas. He may be bringing his homemade .50!
I guess I’d better make my reservations soon.
The Jokes have Started
From Primeval Papa this morning (we work together):
A Navy SEAL walks into a bar and says, “Give me a bin Laden!”
The bartender says, “Sorry, sir, but I don’t know that cocktail.”
“It’s easy,” replies the SEAL. “Two shots and a splash of water!”
Want to Make $200?
Pascal is running a contest:
The GOP is having a debate tomorrow in South Carolina.
Your challenge is to listen to the questions and answers and decide what the best answer YOU would come up with.
In the past, TV tells us who wins, and they’ve rigged the set-up. IOW, they NAIL our minds with this set up time and again. I have myself come up with better answers, some of which were quite funny while being practical.
It is my thinking that the American public is far smarter than any currently serving politician or well-known spokesmouth. Here is your chance to prove that is true and get some publicity too.
I am going to do my part to drum up interest in unofficial answers.
To that end, I am prepared to divide up $200 for the answers submitted to my email box that I find better than the answers given by the GOP stiffs to the conservative unfriendly questions served up by the establishmentarian water carriers. And turning the tables on the water carriers by mocking their question before tailoring your answer can be a winner!
Deadline for submission is 11:59 PM Saturday, 5/07/11.
Go read the whole thing. And give ’em hell!
Public Education Achieves its Goals
In Detroit.
Report: Nearly Half Of Detroiters Can’t Read
From that report (PDF):
The National Institute for Literacy estimates that 47% of adults (more than 200,000 individuals) in the City of Detroit are functionally illiterate, referring to the inability of an individual to use reading, speaking, writing, and computational skills in everyday life situations.
It gets better:
We also know that of the 200,000 adults who are functionally illiterate, approximately half have a high school diploma or GED, so this issue cannot be solely addressed by a focus on adult high-school completion.
While these numbers are less severe for the region as a whole, the region at-large is far from immune to this issue. Within the tri-county region, there are a number of municipalities with illiteracy rates rivaling Detroit: Southfield at 24%, Warren at 17%, Inkster at 34%, Pontiac at 34%.
Further, from the (short) CBS story, it would appear that certain areas in the D.C. metropolis and around Cleveland are even worse. Truly, if our education system had been foisted on us by a foreign power, it would have been an act of war.
UPDATE: Breda takes this and puts her own, much more detailed spin on it.
Quote of the Day – “Imagine” Edition
Imagine Harry out in the woods, wearing his invisibility cloak, carrying a .50bmg Barrett, turning Deatheaters into pink mist, scratching a lightning bolt into his rifle stock for each kill. I don’t think Madam Pomfrey has any spells that can scrape your brains off of the trees and put you back together after something like that. Voldmort’s wand may be 13.5 inches with a phoenix-feather core, but Harry’s would be 0.50 inches with a tungsten core. Let’s see Voldy wave his at 3,000 feet per second. Better hope you have some Essence of Dittany for that sucking chest wound.
William the Coroner, Harry Potter Needs a 1911
RTWT
I’m Conflicted on This One (Possibly NSFW)
I don’t know if it’s brilliant, or if I’d have the (*ahem*) testicular fortitude to post a picture of it had I thought of it myself, but you be the judge:
I bet the charge throws are very consistent!
I’m not even going to ask what he uses for case lube.
Found at (where else?) AR15.com.
Quote of the Day – Human Transformation Edition
It is only those who hope to transform human beings who end up by burning them, like the waste product of a failed experiment. – Christopher Hitchens
See What We Got Here Is … Failure to Communicate for more on this concept. See also this previous QotD and this one.
Now THAT’S Funny!
Sad But True
XKCD. The rollover for this one reads:
The universe is probably littered with one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space–each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones that made the irrational decision.
Once Again, No Bowling Pin Match
The May Bowling Pin match should have been next Sunday – Mother’s Day. Outstanding planning, no?
Well, like last month, it’s been cancelled. The range is still doing berm work, so the Action ranges are not available.
I’ve been promised, however, that the work will be done in time for the June match, so the next match is Sunday, June 12 at 8:00AM at the Tucson Rifle Club. Same rules, same price: $10 for your first gun, $5 per additional gun.
Hope to see you there!