The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
I still don’t know what “the shoulder thing that goes up” is. – Alan Gura
Still too busy to blog. It’s closing in on Midnight, and I have to get up at 7AM. Alan Gura gave about a 45 minute talk tonight beginning about 8:30, and then started taking questions. He may still be at it.
I’m glad he’s on our side. I have a lot more to say, but I have no idea when I’ll ba able to do it. Maybe Monday, from the looks of things.
Good night.
It looks like about half of us have arrived, and I’m already meeting new people, like Cap’n Bob and the Damsel, the crew from Reasonablenut, D.W. Drang of The Clue Meter, and the guy who runs the official Cheaper Than Dirt blog – imagine that, getting paid to blog.
Today the early arrivals took a guided tour of Scheels in Sparks. It opened about this time last year. Essentially it has everything that Cabela’s had in our tour last year, plus two HUGE aquariums – one freshwater, one salt, and a 60′ Ferris Wheel in the middle of the store. Cabela’s would fit inside this place with room to spare.
And they had AMMO! AND powder! (But no primers.) Pretty impressive place. Reno must be an outdoor recreation mecca to support both a Cabela’s and Scheels.
About 16 of us went to dinner more-or-less together at the Buffet in the El Dorado casino. They tried to seat us close together, but there was a limit on what they could accomplish. Afterward we retired to the hospitality room and joined up with those who had gone gambling and the new arrivals. I’ll try to get photos posted tomorrow, but it’ll be late, since we’ll be at the range most of the day.
It’s 10:30 as I write this, so I’m going to call it a night.
A repeat of last year’s post:
Do you know what happened this week back in 1850, 159 years ago?
California became a state!
The State had no electricity.
The State had no money.
Almost everyone spoke Spanish.
There were gunfights in the streets.
So basically, it was just like it is today, except the women had real breasts and the men didn’t hold hands.
I think maybe I ought to drive home through Nevada.
I’m in my room at the Silver Legacy. Departed Tucson at 4:45AM, walked in the door of my room at 19:00 on the button.
Long day.
Now to see if anyone else is here. No emails yet.
I’m SO Glad Ford Didn’t Take “Bailout” Money
http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v99/smallestminority/PerhapstheBestFordCommercia.flv
They made this a couple of years ago, but this is the first time I’ve been able to download a copy for myself. I thought I’d share.
For Stingray:
From Mostly Cajun‘s “Random Thoughts”:
51. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
Back to loading . . .
Idio-Seconds and Darwin Awards
Gerard reports via Exurban League. Wincingly humorous.
The Rendezvous starts in two (2) days. I’m leaving tomorrow morning at O-Dark-Thirty AM, and I plan on driving straight through. That should put me in Reno between 9 and 10 PM. I’ve decided to travel through Mordor California this year, at least on the way up. It should (I emphasize should) save me about an hour, and hopefully the scenery will be better than the sun-blasted landscape of Nevada has been these last three years.
On-line ticket sales for the Para GI Expert / Front Sight training certificate ended Saturday at midnight, or close to it. Total ticket sales, both at Soldiers’ Angels before PayPal went asshat, and after LuckyGunner.com was kind enough to pick up the gauntlet, came to (drumroll please): 449! After the 3% credit card processing fee (and PayPal’s cut), that means y’all have donated $4,355 to Project Valour IT. Thank you! With what we’ll add at the Rendezvous, Project Valour IT should be able to pick up several new systems!
The weather this year looks to be perfect, with daily highs of about 90 and evening lows in the upper 50’s. Perfect T-shirt weather, rather than the snow we got last year. And I own so many offensive, politically-incorrect T-shirts, it makes choosing which ones to take very difficult.
Speaking of choice, I’m still trying to decide what boomsticks to take with me. The Remington 700 5R (now with a NightForce scope in place of the Leupold) is a given, and one of the ARs, I think. The Garand, and I believe I’ll bring Baby Blue, too. (No .30 Carbine ammo to be had in Tucson. Oops. Perhaps I’ll bring Conan the Borg instead. It’s been a while since that one’s been out of the safe, and I have .22 ammo.) I’ll have to buy some ammo for her, though. I haven’t had a chance to reload for .30 Carbine yet. But I’ve got this new (to me) P14 Enfield I’ve yet to put a round through . . .
For handguns, my full-size Kimber upper is out getting the slide Gunkoted and some tritium night-sights installed. I hoped to have it back in time for the Rendezvous, but no. I think I’ll bring my S&W 25-13 Mountain Gun and some .45LC for it, but I’ll be leaving the companion Winchester 94 here. I might bring the Hi-Power, since I have the better part of a case of 124gr. NATO-spec Europellets. Of course, I’ll bring the Para Gun Blog 45, and the GI Expert I’m giving away. And last but not least, I think I’ll bring my Boomershoot pistol.
Anyway, I’ve got to do some running around, pick up some ammo, load some ammo, pack everything up, and then get to bed early. No posting tomorrow, probably – at least not until I get to Reno, and even then I’ll probably be too wiped to post more than “I’m here!” If you’re coming, I look forward to seeing you! If you’re not, shame on you! But stay tuned – we’ll be liveblogging a lot of it!
Here’s the updated schedule of events.
From a link in LabRat’s Parasite memes and monkeyspheres, David Wong’s Cracked.com piece What is the Monkeysphere?:
(S)ome people in the distant past naively thought they could sit all of the millions of monkeys down and say, “Okay, everybody go pick the bananas, then bring them here, and we’ll distribute them with a complex formula determining banana need! Now go gather bananas for the good of society!” For the monkeys it was a confused, comical, tree-humping disaster.
Later, a far more realistic man sat the monkeys down and said, “You want bananas? Each of you go get your own. I’m taking a nap.” That man, of course, was German philosopher Hans Capitalism.As long as everybody gets their own bananas and shares with the few in their Monkeysphere, the system will thrive even though nobody is even trying to make the system thrive. This is perhaps how Ayn Rand would have put it, had she not been such a hateful bitch.