Meeting'd To Death...

Thank Allah it's Friday, or some semblance thereof. I've been in meetings all week, and I think I need a nappy. I've also been dealing with some of my esteemed competition, who, to use the vernacular, are scumbags. No names here — yet — but I have to say I'm losing my sense of humor. Maybe I'm just tired.

Have been wonderfully buoyed by the successes of this season of COWBOYS and THE BEST DEFENSE: SURVIVAL. Once again, we've upped the ante across the board, and it's paying off Big Time. I'm about 85% home on the new show, which will once again redefine the whole playing board. Man, if my competition would spend 1/10th the time in trying to improve their own product that they spend trying to burn me down, we'd all benefit.

I got my new Ruger SASS Vaqueros, serial numbers SASS00017 and SASS00018...darn nice guns, if you like single actions, which I obviously do. I already have planned out how they're going to get dinked (by Jim Finch, Long Hunter). Yeah, I pretty much never leave well enough alone. I sent the Para GI Expert off to Bill Laughridge at C&S to finish up the retro-ization for SASS Wild Bunch matches...am looking forward to the Nationals at Winter Range in Phoenix early next year. Hopefully, I can get the ejection problem straightened out with my Norinco Trench Gun 1897 by then.

Am also very pleased to be going forward with the Ruger Rimfire Championships — it's a great, fun competition. I'll be shooting my 10/22 Target (running an Aimpoint Micro) and my vampire red Ruger/Tactical Solutions .22/.45. I think I may build up a Ruger MkIII with a Tac-Sol top end for a really trick target pistol (the .22/.45 is a bit light to me)...I'm thinking of asking my pal Mr. Completely for some advice, since he's the Lord High God of .22 Target Pistols. I'm also planning to shoot some single stack competition later this fall when local cowboy matches shut down for the winter. I'll probably use a "illegal" drop holster (like the Blocker TNT or my old Gordie Davis rig) that more closely resembles my Blocker Wild Bunch holster and just shoot for score.

Is It Friday Yet?

Apparently not...if it's Friday, I'd be at a different meeting! I think you guys know I'm hammering out a potential new show, so I'm whipping around like Willie Nelson on...well, some chemical cocktail.

I wanted to note that COWBOYS' new season is starting to get spectacular reviews on the big cowboy forums. I'm very glad...Hatch TV, new host Ron "Tupelo Flash" Stein and I have put a lot into the show this season, leading to the Big Overhaul next season. Good to see people are noticing.

Politico notes that the Coalition to Ban Guns...whoops, I mean, Stop Gun Violence are banking the reprehensible Tom Mauser in ads attacking Colorado Senators Udall and Bennet for basically acting like real Coloradans and backing the Thune amendment. A legitimate victim — Mauser lost his son at Columbine — Tom Mauser is a little too fond of the spotlight and a little to out in outer space.

The Firearms Blog is reporting huge sales increases from Beretta and Ruger. Fifty percent of Ruger's 94% increase is from their new products — the SR556, SR9, LCP and LCR.

Back to the meetings!

FNH Target Rifles

I see that my friends at FNH are expanding their superb line of rifles...I've talked at length about how much I like their tactical rifles...I have a target I shot from one of the FNH FBI rifles at the old Crucible facility years ago over my desk. Here's the press release:

FNH USA hits the target with its new
Tactical Sport Rifle (TSR)

​McLean, Va. (July 29, 2009). FNH USA announces the new FN TSR (Tactical Sport Rifle) is now shipping to distributors and dealers. Configurations include:

FN TSR XP USA (arriving at dealers now)
• 223 REM: 20” fluted barrel; six-round magazine

FN TSR XP (additional models available by year end 2009)
• 308 WIN: With 20” and 24” fluted barrels; four-round magazine
• 300 WSM: With 24” fluted barrel; three-round magazine

​Built at FN Manufacturing in Columbia, SC, the TSR has a new three-lever tactical sport trigger with an adjustable pull weight from three to five pounds and is factory set at 3.75 pounds. Both models have MIL-SPEC cold hammer-forged barrels for long bore life. Models feature an internal magazine with a hinged floor plate (FLP) or detachable box magazine (DBM). Included is a one-piece steel MIL-STD 1913 optical rail, with additional elevation built-in for quick sighting and proper scope height.

​The Model 70 design bolt-action receiver is available in ultra short, short magnum and long action lengths and mates to a full aluminum bedding block molded into the FN/Hogue® synthetic stock that’s covered with a textured olive drab OverMolded rubber surface. Premium recoil pad and multiple sling studs are standard equipment.

​For more information on the FN TSR XP and FN TSR XP USA, visit www.fnhusa.com.


-- Post From The Road

On To Midway!

As always, a great dinner with Ronnie Barrett...he is a true Southern gentlemen and one of the smartest men I know, which makes for a great evening. Actually, I just like hanging around with his fianace, Donna. Cool stuff coming from Barrett (and, no, I can't tell you yet)!

PS: Spent some time at Chris and Ronnie Barrett's ultimate fantasy gunstore, The Outpost Armory, down the street from Barrett. WOWIE-ZOWIE! Think of it as a gun geek's wet dream...skids of ammunition, walls of exotic arms (including an SPR semiauto Krink 5.56 that practically wept to come home with me), all the ARs in the world and a whole series of 'way cool t-shirts put together by Chris Barrett (who was also the primary designer of the Barrett .338 Lapua you saw on SG recently), including one he made for me in mind that shows an S&W M29 and the words, "WHEEL GUNS IS REAL GUNS!" Cool or what?

You know, I completely forgot Sabre was in Nashville...I had the extra time this afternoon and now I feel el stupido for not dropping by. I'll make it up to them with a special trip.

Dinner tomorrow night with Larry Potterfield in Missouri.

BTW, Marshal Halloway and I made a decision today to shift SHOOTING GALLERY and DRTV resources away from this year's Steel Challenge in California and refocus them on the Ruger Rimfire Challenge event in New Mexico. I won't go into all the reasons but it was definitely the right thing to do. Lemme know your thoughts on the matter...

Apologies..

...in advance for Wednesday's podcast...the audio quality sucks, as my natty digital recording set-up for the road was in my hapless, tortured, disapperared suitcase. So I'm in my hotel room in Music City USA using my second-string recorder waiting for my replacement stuff to arrive from Amazon. It'll be better next week, I promise!

Marinade-wise, it's a taste thing — 2 cups tamari, 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce, dash of lime juice, 4 dashes Tabasco (but hey, it's on you), wasabi to taste (but more is better...your sinuses will thank you).

Hanging out with Ronnie Barrett tomorrow, so I anticipate a rockin' good time!

Pulled the Lever...

...yesterday on the Dillon 650. For some reason I have more trouble with my 650, which is set up to run .357 cowboy stuff, than my ancient 550s (including one that was upgraded from an original 400/450) and my ritzy-titzy 1050 that cranks out .45 ACPs. It's one small problem after another...I even sent the thing back to Dillon at one point. They overhauled it, and it's still a pain in ass. I ran up 300 or so Unique/158-gr LaserCast rounds, so we could get in a practice session today in between thunderstorms. Maybe my 650 is suffering from the hellish pain of incipient racism...

Practice went well...it'd been at least a week since I heard guns go bang, so I was more or less in withdrawal. My Sweetie is shooting extremely well, BTW.

I even went crazy and cooked last night...wild sockeye salmon, seared on top of the stove, then sorta poached in my own tamari-wasabi-honey-worcestershire sauce-Tabasco marinade. I wanted to grill it outside, but up here in Secret Hidden Bunker we're still trapped in the brutal grip of global warming, so it's cool and rainy every day. I served it along with fresh corn on the cob.

BTW, am watching HIGH NOON for the umteenth time...sadly, we all live in Hadleyville now.

Weekly Dose of Paranoia

It's good for you! For this week's orgy of paranoia, I thought you might like to read Doug Casey's "Street Fighting Man" from the Liberty Unbound blog:

I’ve puzzled over who will go into the streets as the depression deepens and when they’ll do it. Nikolai Kondratieff, of Long Wave fame, was of the opinion that the natives tend to get restless at economic peaks (like the late 1960s, when riots broke out all over the world) and at economic troughs (like the 1930s, when the same thing happened). His reasoning is not dissimilar from that of Strauss and Howe. At peaks, people are just feeling their oats, which can evidence itself domestically in riots inspired by rising expectations, and internationally in optional sport wars, like that in Vietnam. Such peak-time disturbances are troublesome but don’t really threaten society. That’s largely because when times are good, people feel they have a lot to lose and they believe things can get even better. In prosperous times, people don’t usually feel like overthrowing the government or transforming the basis of society.

Not so at economic troughs. People believe they have little to lose, they’re eager to hang those they believe responsible for their problems, and they’ll listen to radical or violent proposals. We’re now just entering what will likely be the worst economic trough since the Industrial Revolution.

But why do humans tend to riot when the going gets rough? How can they think that solves anything? Do they believe it’s going to make their jobs or money reappear? Perhaps I ask that question only because I can’t see myself rioting. You and I might discount the thought of Americans going wild, because we wouldn’t likely join them. But we’re not, I suspect, the average American. People, throughout history, have always been prone to violence when times get tough. Is there any reason that should change now?

Recently, there have been — really for the first time in this downturn — reports of large, angry demonstrations all over the world. The UK, France, Eastern Europe, now China. If a place like Iceland, as placid and homogeneous as any in the world, can blow up, then any place can. And probably will.

A rioter is typically an angry person looking for vengeance because he blames someone else for his problem. So far, rioters seem to be directing their attention at governments. Correct target, of course, but they don’t have the rationale quite right. They’re not angry because governments inflated the currency, promoted fractional reserve banking, and nurtured all the cockamamie socialist programs that caused this crisis. Not at all; they rather liked all that. They’re angry only because their governments haven’t adequately protected them from the consequences of what they did. So as conditions worsen, we can expect governments worldwide to pull out absolutely all the stops to show they’re “doing something.” And round up scape-goats to satisfy the mob and divert anger from themselves.

I fully expect civil unrest to spread everywhere, simply because the depression will spread everywhere. It will be worst in places that have been most overextended, most debt-leveraged, most urban, and have the largest numbers of unemployed workers — the United States, Europe, and China.

Read the whole thing, and feel free to send me a note explaining that I am hopelessly paranoid. Everything is, of course, fine and dandy!

My Underwear is Dead...

...yep, it's over. United has asked me to file a claim for my bag, which included rare coins, several laptops, a train, most of Outdoor Channel production facilities (including the hi-def cameras), Angelina Jolie's priceless corset, Michael Jackson's body, a Spyderco Yojimbo, a director's cut of Yojimbo, the movie, and, of course, my tortured, dirty underwear. I predict the brainless SOBs at United Baggage Claim will hound me unmercifully over the receipt for the train.

I took most of the day off, so sue me. I went bicycling up by my property that will become the new Secret Hidden Bunker in a couple of  years. Hot, dry and fun!

Barry "Beyond Race" Obama Puts His Foot in It Again

Well, last night the Man Beyond Race really socked it to those Cambridge, MA, ofay piggies, didn't he? Hey, he doesn't know the facts of the case, but, you know, here in AmeriKKKa, da Man always be guilty of harassing the noble, brutalized underclass. In case you fell asleep while the Boy King described how all good flows from the government teat, to be paid for by those rich m-f'ers who are always trying to grind the downtrodden under their hobnailed Swiss boat shoes, here's a bit of the story from the right-wing lunatics at Fox:

Obama: Cambridge police acted stupidly

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Wednesday that police acted "stupidly" in the arrest of prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and that despite racial progress blacks and Hispanics are still singled out unfairly for arrest.

Obama called Gates a friend, and said he doesn't know all the facts of the case. Nonetheless, Obama said, anyone would have been angry if treated the way Gates claims police in Cambridge, Mass., treated him.

Just for kicks, I, ofay m-f'er that I am, thought you opressors who read the blog might be interested in the actual police report, provided by The Smoking Gun blogsite. Here's a little bit of excerpt...click on the image to enlarge it, then go to TSG and read the whole thing:

Hmmmmmmm...doesn't sound like Maniac Cop IV, the squeal to the sequels, to me...

MUST READ - Recreation on Public Lands!

This is from the Colorado Springs Gazette, and we need to circulate it to get the range reopened.  One the same day this person was killed by his friend's negligence another kayaker was killed on a river. In that story, which appeared in the Denver Post just below the shooting story, there was no hand-wringing from Forest Service officials, no call for all rivers — which are, by definition, public property — to be closed to kayaking and rafting, no quotes from anti-kayaking groups. As much as any death is a tragedy, the Ramparts Range was NOT complicit in that death by negligence. The victim's friend violated all four basic safety rules — he didn't treat his gun as if it was loaded, even though it WAS loaded; he pointed his gun at something he OBVIOUSLY did not want to kill or destroy; no matter what he might claim, his finger was DEMONSTRABLY on the trigger and he CLEARLY wasn't sure of his target!

Secondly, I have shot at quite literally hundreds of ranges, formal and informal, around the world. In every case, the primary "supervision" for the shooter on the line HAS TO BE in the head of the shooter! The safety is in your head!

USFS in Colorado has been hell-bent to shut down any shooting area they could for years, and the Ramparts Range area has always been in the crosshairs. 

Opinion-An outrageous anti-gun move

| Recommend 7

July 21, 2009 - 6:57 PM

A recreational activity took the life of a man when he and a group of friends knowingly engaged in dangerous fun on government-regulated property. If authorities had prohibited the dangerous activity, the man would be alive.

Stop thinking shooting range.

The accident caused the June death of 61-year-old James Kennedy of Woodland Park. Kennedy and his friends, under the supervision of a professional guide, boarded a raft in order to challenge the white-water rapids of the Arkansas River in 2008. As the raft Kennedy rode in approached the F Street Bridge in Salida, it overturned. The water whisked Kennedy away, tossing him like a rag doll.

All on board the raft knew they were risking life and limb, and possibly putting others in danger. Only a week earlier, 67-year-old Oscar Stevenson III climbed aboard a raft on the Arkansas and died near Buena Vista. A few weeks before that, 26-year-old Subhashi Nelakurthi boarded a raft on the Arkansas and died in the Royal Gorge. Dangerous. Needless. Costly to the public.

Kris Wahlers, boating safety coordinator for Colorado, tells The Gazette 10 people have died in Colorado rafting accidents so far in 2009, and two have died in boating accidents on state reservoirs.

These senseless deaths by recreation would end, if only government would block access to the river with concrete barriers and barbed wire.

The 10 killed rafting in Colorado this year would have been in more danger had they chosen to snowboard or ski at any of Colorado’s ski resorts, most of which operate on national forest land. Snowboarding is the most dangerous outdoor hobby in the United States, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control. It is followed by sledding, hiking and mountain biking. All firearms accidents combined kill 1,150 people each year — in a country of more than 300 million privately owned guns.

Recreational shooting, therefore, may be the safest form of common outdoor recreation known to humankind.

The safety of recreational shooting is evident in the fact some 40,000 people each year shoot at the Pike National Forest’s Rampart Range Shooting Range, the only public range in El Paso County. It has been unsupervised since it opened in 1990. Hundreds of thousands of recreational shooters have used the range in 19 years of operation, yet the first death came Saturday. Otis Freison died when a member of his group tragically failed to clear a weapon of ammunition, leading to a negligent discharge.

That’s one fatal accident in 19 years. Imagine if other recreation facilities were that safe. One section of the Arkansas River took four lives in a week last year, yet rafting didn’t stop for a day.

This single shooting death in 19 years led Forest Supervisor Bob Leaverton to close the range indefinitely on Tuesday. That will cause some recreational shooters to practice their sport in more dangerous locations.

Closing Rampart, one of the safest recreational facilities in Colorado, is nothing other than an irrational bias against gun owners and their rights. Pike National Forest belongs to the public, and all must demand this anti-gun bureaucrat reopen the range immediately.

Thune Amendment Fails...

...but, IMHO, fails good. This from MSNBC:

Gun control proponents scored a rare victory as the Senate rejected the carrying of concealed weapons across state lines.

The 58-39 vote Wednesday defeated a measure giving people with concealed weapons permits the right to carry their firearms into other states that have similar gun laws. Sixty votes were needed to approve the provision, an amendment to a defense spending bill.

It is an unusual setback for the gun rights side, which has been able to muster majorities of Republicans and pro-gun Democrats to move its agenda through both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Actually, nobody I talked to on our side (including me) thought the reciprocity bill had a snowball's chance in hell of getting this far. It needed 60 votes and got 58, Speaking of snow in hell, Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell has the round-up:

UPDATE: Final vote 58-39. The bill is defeated, as it needed 60 votes under the rule. I told Bitter this morning I expected majority, but no passage. We have done better than I would have anticipated, and this was a major piece of pro-gun legislation that would have altered the landscape significantly.

UPDATE: Expect gloating from the anti-gunners, but we came very close. We will be back with this bill, or another like it. They can take that to the bank.

Amen to that! A key point is that the Blue Dog Dems are proving to be far more reliable and far more committed to the 2nd Amendment than the Republicans they replaced, which is certainly good for us and good for America.

I would personally like to thank Colorado Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet for standing up for their constituents in this shall-issue state and voting "YES." Today's Denver Post featured a full-page ad from antigun forces, filled with misinformation and outright lies trying to swing the vote, but Udall and Bennet stood up to the BS intimidation. Senators, gun owners in Colorado will remember this vote!

Underwear Crisis, Day 3!

The United baggage website says they have not located my bag, nor do they have the slightest idea where it is, when it might be found, when it might be delivered, if it contains state secrets, whether it is being waterboarded in the Windowless Room at O'Hare or, for that matter, anything. I have talked to more people in India than Hillary Clinton, including at least one exchange that came straight out of My Fair Lady:

"Your new report number is 'G,' as in 'Jillian...' "

" 'G' as in "Gilliam...'"

"No sir! 'G' as in 'Jillian...'"

" 'G?'"

"No, 'G!'"

"Oh, 'J' as in 'Juice?"

"Yes! Yes! 'G' as in 'Goose!'

"And once again, where does it rain?"

"On the plain! On the plain!"

I frankly don't know how long my underwear can hold out. Sure, the Boy King has banned waterboarding, but Chicago is only marginally a part of the United States, and I know if that thug Daley gets involved it's gonna be a stripped extension cord straight to the 'nads. 

I know that my underwear takes strength from the great national outpouring of support, and, yes, even love since this crisis began. Thank you all...

Luggage Still Being Sweated...

...although United has already given me a $150 certificate to make me feel better. My underwear is still MIA, despite protestations that it is no longer in custody. No matter what they tell me, I believe that my underwear wouldn't talk, no matter what the dirty screws threw at 'em! 

Dare to struggle; dare to win!

Meanwhile, I've been way off base on the best protection against mountain lions...this from Cody, Wyoming, no doubt near the home of Jim Zumbo: 

CODY, Wyoming — A Colorado man used a chain saw to fight off a mountain lion that attacked him during a camping trip with his wife and two toddlers in northwestern Wyoming.

The adult male lion, described as emaciated and showing other signs of starvation, was later killed by wildlife officials after it attacked a dog brought in to track it.

Dustin Britton, a 32-year-old mechanic and ex-Marine from Windsor, Colo., said he was alone cutting firewood about 100 feet from his campsite in the Shoshone National Forest when he saw the 100-pound lion staring at him from some bushes.

The 6-foot, 170-pound Britton said he raised his 18-inch chain saw and met the lion head-on as it pounced — a collision he described as feeling like a grown man running directly into him.

Okay...speak softly but carry a chainsaw. And speaking of chainsaws, I'm all torqued up on the DS Arms itty bitty FAL blaster;

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I might have to pony up the bucks and the $200 tax stamp to have one of these little monsters. I gotta tell you it got away from me on full auto, with me hanging on for dear life. Pop an Advanced Armament suppressor like the Cyclone on this beast and it'd be the ne plus ultra of 7.62 mini-rifles. It'd go well with my Serbu Super Shorty. 

Feds Seize Dirty Underwear!

Yes! It's true! The vast machinery of the federal government has captured my dirty underwear and refuses to reveal its whereabouts!

My single piece of luggage from last weekend's filming trips is now under a Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) "hold" in Chicago as the Best and the Brightest struggle to figure out what to do with five pairs of dirty briefs, several dirty t-shirts, 2 training books by Wes Doss (Wes, I wouldn't have taken the books if I'd'a known the "G" was one your trail!), assorted toiletries, including MOISTURIZER WITH SUNSCREEN (SPF 45), my Spyderco folder, some sweaty jeans and, of course, two paperweights — an upper and a lower receiver raw forgings for a Stag AR.

Wow! Another terrorist plot thwarted! I confess...I was going to sell the 2 forgings to the drug cartels in Mexico, where a couple of guys with flat files and a battery-powered Makita drill would turn them into a WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!

Anyway, about my underwear...you guys can keep it if its important to you. I can also provide autographed pictures. I sure would like my Spyderco knife back though...

MORE as it develops (or begins to fester, whichever comes first!

A Must-Read on EMPs...

...from William Forstchen, author of ONE SECOND AFTER (courtesy of the Silver Bear Cafe):

An EMP attack is different since it only requires but one nuclear weapon, detonated 300 miles above the middle of the United States. One bomb. The launch could even be done from a container ship somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico and in that instant, the war is already over and won.

An analogy. Aircraft carriers existed in 1941 but few saw them as a true strategic threat. Most in the military and their civilian leaders saw the role of carriers as platforms for launching scout planes, spotting targets, and acting always in support of the trusted and proven battleship. No one seriously considered the potential of putting half a dozen such carriers into one group and launching a full out attack in the opening minutes of a war. We all know what changed that belief forever, but by then, it was too late for the nearly 3,000 Americans who were killed on that Day of Infamy. The next Day of Infamy will be infinitely worst.
[...]
Not a wide eyed sci fi novel or something sensationalistic, or even something set long after the event, like the book "The Road." But instead it was my goal to write a novel like the classic "Alas Babylon," or the more well known "On the Beach." To do something that might trigger a response, any kind of response. It was my good fortune, while researching for the book that I met Captain Bill Sanders of the Navy, one of our country's leading experts on EMP and Congressman Bartlett who heads the Congressional committee that issued a little known report on the threat of EMP. Both of them provided me with valuable information, which I must always emphasize was not classified, and encouraged me to get the story "out there."
I therefore wrote the novel from the perspective of a single dad with two daughters, li ving in small town in North Carolina. .and what he will do, and finally must do to try and keep his daughters alive. And yes, it is very autobiographical. I am a single parent of a teenage girl, and I live and teach in a small North Carolina mountain town that is the actual setting for my story.

My greatest frustration and something I hope my novel will stir is the realization that only a minimal effort, to start, could radically cut the number of casualties after such an attack, perhaps by a full magnitude from over 250 million dead to less then 25 million dead...which is still a horrific number.

An off the shelf purchase of hand held two way radi os by every local police, fire, sheriff, and emergency response department in the country would mean, that if then properly stored along with a large stock pile of batteries that within minutes after an attack, a nation wide network of communications would be back up and running. This can not be emphasized enough, that proper communications and what the military calls "command and control," will go a long step towards maintaining public order.

Another inexpensive step is just simple training. We are a nation that sadly has become entirely dependent on someone "up the ladder" passing orders as to what to do. Very few of us today are conditioned to think and act independently. This has to be reversed in the event of an EMP strike. Every first responder should be trained to be able to recognize an EMP hit, and in coordination with their local departments, have a plan in place as to what to do first, and then next, and then after that. This author would recommend a first step being the seizing of supplies at every veterinarian's office in the country.

That might sound strange, but vets are most likely the only ones in your community that have a full array of surgical equipment, anesthesia and pain killers. Armed with this equipment, medications seized from pharmacies, dentist offices and doctor's offices, and then set up at a local school, staffed by local doctors and nurses, would mean that each community has made a major step towards tending its injured, ill and elderly.

Other training would be oriented towards how to organize a community, locating vehicles that still run, and retro fitting those vehicles, that had minimal electronics in them, so that law enforcement, medical, and fire control have transportation.

A next step would be public education for all citizens, similar to the programs in place during the 1950s. How to recognize an EMP strike and then what do you do? After Katrina we have learned to now start educating our citizens that they must rely upon themselves and their own good judgment, and not expect government to come instantly to the rescue. Contrast the chaos in the days before Katrina to the orderly evacuations when Gustav hit New Orleans this year.

But a week's worth of emergency food stockpile and water, just recycling used milk and soda bottles, filling them with sterile water and storing them away could buy a precious week's worth of time, nation wide. A few simple medical supplies such a sterile bandages and just a basic family first aid manual. Simple things even our grandparents, still living on farms knew, about how to insure water is safe, where to put a privy pit, and properly store any food that might last long term. If a family member has a serious il lness or condition keep a full level of medicine on hand and not wait until the bottle is empty before refilling. This alone could be a life saver for millions, buying extra weeks or a month or two.

By all means READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE!

Happy Anniversary, Senator Kennedy!

Forty years ago yesterday the Moral Center Of The Democratic Party left young Mary Jo Kopechne to die in car he crashed off the bridge at Chappaquiddick. There's commentary from Power Line. Hey, Mr. Moral Center claims to be a good Catholic...think he might be smelling a hint of brimstone in the air?

Full Auto!

-- Post From The Road

Working on Sunday!

Wish you were here...



-- Post From The Road

The Other White Meat

Have survived first night in the Gun Free Paradise, although being here in the Boy King's home city is making me slightly queasy.

I'm going to treat my queasiness with a dose of the other white meat, the FAL battle rifle...I've always been fascinated with the FN-FAL, a huge success worldwide yet never really accepted in America. It's also interesting to me (and I hope to SG viewers) that we're sort of in another one of those military sweepstakes to develop a whole new MBR, a 7.62 gas pistol rifle reliable enough for swamps, deserts, the Arctic, whatever. That's sorta what the FAL is, isn't it?

I'm up here today to spend some time on the range with the DS Arms FAL variants. DS has had a lot of success with their updated/upgrades FAL-style rifles. Looks like fun outside the city limits!

If I've got the 3G signal, I'll be on Twitter...

Team Photo

Wes Doss, Mark Malkowski & moi...

-- Post From The Road

CT LaserGrips AR...

Vertical foregrip on Stagzz



-- Post From The Road

Day at the Office Redux

Wes Doss at Stag Arms for SG...

-- Post From The Road

Giant Gobs of Goo...

...found floating off the coast of Alaska. Is Sarah Palin involved?

Something big and strange is floating through the Chukchi Sea between Wainwright and Barrow.

Hunters from Wainwright first started noticing the stuff sometime probably early last week. It's thick and dark and "gooey" and is drifting for miles in the cold Arctic waters, according to Gordon Brower with the North Slope Borough's Planning and Community Services Department.

Brower and other borough officials, joined by the U.S. Coast Guard, flew out to Wainwright to investigate. The agencies found "globs" of the stuff floating miles offshore Friday and collected samples for testing.

Well, I'm reserving my opinion for now, but I would like to point out that Michael Jackson has not been buried and his body's location is not known.

Quick gunny thing, here's an article I missed earlier in the year by my old pal and cool jazz musician Roger Eckstine on Bob Mernickle's 1911 Wild Bunch holster...sorry it took so long Roger!

The sport of Practical Shooting is basically a make believe game of good guys versus bad guys.

Each individual contest within a match, whether you call it a scenario or a course of fire, is based on engaging a set of targets that upon start signal “threaten” the shooter demanding that they engage the targets as rapidly as possible without missing.

Within this last sentence are terms that are used in a variety of different organizations that interpret the application of practical shooting from their own points of view. The United States Practical Shooting Association, (USPSA), and the International Practical Shooting Confederation, (IPSC), challenge their contestants with courses of fire that increasingly demand athleticism.
[...]
There is plenty to argue about among practitioners who staunchly defend their organizations. The funny thing is that all of the above share a common link in terms of the sport’s origin. I’d bet that many seasoned competitors don’t realize how big a part Cowboy style quick draw or “leather slap” competition played in the history of organized Practical Shooting.

Before Col. Jeff Cooper and his looseknit association of tactical think-tankers developed a game of speed, power and accuracy, shooters paired off like drag racers to see who could draw from a holster and hit the target first. These were showdown games based on shootouts just like those found in the American Wild West. Or, at least that’s how early television would have it told.

Today’s practical shooting games range from a pure sporting event to recreating the old west or playing cops and robbers. But the divide is shrinking all the time. The USPSA, the American based arm of the international body, (IPSC), now presides over a Single Stack division that closely mirrors the rules of the IDPA Custom Defensive Pistol, (CDP) entries.

But, a recent development in SASS cowboy action has brought all three organizations even closer together. The organization was built on a three-gun format of lever-action rifle, slide action or double barrel shotgun, and single action six shooter. But, the format has now been expanded to include the single action Browning 1911 45.

Read the whole thing!

BTW, I've enjoyed the repartee in the Comments on one of my previous posts, some of which centers on whether I'm paranoid or not. As Curly Bill Brocius might have said, "Well, gee!" When OVER THE EDGE came out, there was a whole series of commentary questioning whether I was actually insane or just mildly looney. I am occasionally flayed alive on the tactical blogs for being a poseur, on the mainstream blogs for being a too tactical, everywhere for being a sell-out whore who takes money for something other people do for free, and occasionally even called smart (probably a diminutive for "smart-ass").

All those things are probably true to one extent or the other. People — myself included — are many things, often conflicting, at different times in their lives. I am indeed obsessed with many things — cooking salmon on a grill, learning to fly radio-controlled helicopters, shooting a perfectly clean cowboy match, bicycling, collecting cowboy hats, custom 1911s and exotic Ruger single actions, and, occasionally, my work.

What I'm not obsessed with are things like personal defense, preparedness, planning, training, etc. Rather, those are things I do that allow me to live the kind of life I want to live. I outline this philosophy specifically in TRAIL SAFE, yet another of my many products that I relentlessly shill...I suggest those of you who question my mental state but haven't read it, do so immediately. In fact. buy 3...I could use the money.

We all get to choose the kind of life we want to live. I was deeply moved by Helen Keller's profound insight, "Life is either a great adventure or nothing." I opted for the great adventure. Over the years I have accumulated an interesting set of skills, many obtained through painfull trial and error. The underlying philosophy for that journey is a simple one — I am responsible for me and for those in my care. It's simple, but it has widespread implications.

Overall, my training has served me well, both as an individual and as a journalist who has traveled some strange, and occasionally dangerous, paths. Here's a question...would I have needed that training if I had done as my parents dearly wanted — gotten a good degree, worked a good job for 30 years and retired to fish? Don't know; didn't do it.

Second point, this one on preparedness. When looking at social disruptions, you need to separate the survival of the country with the survival of the individual. America easily weathered 9/11 and the destruction of New Orleans, but bunches of individual Americans still died. My goal is once again simple — regardless of the disruption, I'd prefer to not be one of the deaders. Again, that goal has widespread implications. Remember, I've now spent a lot of time with people the U.S. government pays to think about this stuff...you think I'm paranoid!

As I say in TRAIL SAFE, enhanced awareness — what we teach weekly in THE BEST DEFENSE and THE BEST DEFENSE: SURVIVAL — also enhances a person's life. As we become more aware, we are better able to both appreciate and to participate in everything the world has to offer. My job right now is to help people become more aware while at the same time entertaining them.

I think our country is on the wrong path, and I think one of the consequences of that wrong path is the enhanced potential for social disruptions. So while we focus on the macro manstream political issues — the 2010 election — on the micro scale we (or at least I) want to make sure that, as stated above, whatever happens me and mine don't end up on the buried-in-dirt side of the equation.

Simple?

Sodomayor Confirmation Hearing

Snowflakes in Hell is doing a great job of posting on the gun aspects of the hearing, which I've been watching as well. I feel so much better to know that our very own wise Latina woman understand Heller because she has a friend who hunts!

Johnny Ringo R.I.P.

On this day in 1882, Johnny Ringo — the "King" of the outlaw band called the Cowboys — was found dead outside of Tombstone, AZ.

"There was found by the undersigned John Yoast the body of a man in a clump of Oak trees 20 yards north from the road leading to Morse's mill and about a quarter of a mile west of the house of B. F. Smith. The undersigned viewed the body and found it in a sitting posture, facing west, the head inclined to the right. There was a bullet hole in the right temple, the bullet coming out the top of the left side. There is apparently a part of the scalp gone including a small portion of the forehead and part of the hair, this looks as if cut by a knife. These are the only marks of violence visible to the body. Several of the undersigned identify the body as that of John Ringo, well known in Tombstone. He was dressed in light hat, blue shirt, vest, pants and drawers, on his feet were a pair of hose and undershirt torn up so as to protect his feet. He had evidentially traveled but a short distance in this footgear. His revolver he grasps in his right hand, his rifle rested against the tree close to him. He had on two cartridge belts. The belt for the revolver cartridges being buckled upside on down."

There is still some controversy over whether the famous outlaw killed himself or was murdered. Sadly, there is no evidence that he was killed in a gunfight with Doc Holliday, who was in court in Colorado on July 11. There is some question over how many men Ringo killed in his time as a badman. This from Wikipedia:

"According to L'Amour [western novelist Louis L'Amour, who researched the life of western outlaws], Ringo was merely a common, surly, bad-tempered man who was worse when he was drinking, and that his main claim to fame was shooting an unarmed man named Louis Hancock in an Arizona territory saloon in 1879 for ordering beer after Ringo told him to order whiskey."

Bambi Whack = $4000

Hey. less than last time! I'm sort of rebuilding the Boxcar a side at a time. The good news is that 3 more deer and I'm an ace!

To do some house-cleaning, Frank James is 100% right...since my 329 had an action job from Alpha Precision, if I sent it back to S&W they'd point a big ole finger at the gunsmith, who didn't touch the lock mechanism. Bottom line...the S&W lock is POTENTIAL DEATH in ultra-lightweight frames! Think about it...say it only fails once every 100,000 rounds...do you want to risk that one failure while you're trying to keep Ms. Bear from turning your 8-year-old into a yummy snack? And remember, a 1-in-100,000 doesn't necessarily mean you get to pull the trigger 100,000 times before the lock fails. The failure could occur on Pull #99,999 or Pull #3. Think about it.

Here's a bit from the Congressional Research Service on the M-4 and its challenges for Congress. Here's the summary:

The M-4 carbine is the Army’s primary individual combat weapon for infantry units. The M-4 uses a direct gas impingement system that blows carbon from the fired cartridge back into the weapon’s receiver, which can lead to weapon malfunctions. The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is replacing its M-4s with the Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR), a modular weapon with a short-stroke piston system that eliminates carbon blow back, which theoretically improves reliability. Some have questioned why the Army has not adopted the SCAR or another similarly designed weapon. A series of studies and tests of the M-4 and potential competitors have added to this debate, and the Army has taken steps to begin evaluating other weapons to replace the M-4. This report will be updated as events warrant.

I can't imagine any drive to change the Big Army's small arms during the reign of Knee-Pads Barry, whose response to hostile nations is...harsh language! Oh, I suppose that if, say, there was a problem in a democratic nation that was a U.S. ally, say, Israel, Knee-Pads would consider using an American nuclear response to keep the socialist world government agenda on course and keep those craaaaaaaaaa-zzzzzzzzy Jews from ruining everything!

Also, check out VPC's Josh "SAD PANDA" Sugarmann's piece in the Huffington Post on Jan Libourel's editorial in GUN WORLD magazine, trying to stir up some nasty dookey among us gun folk. Here's a little of it:

Libourel's Quisling rating then ratchets up a few more points when he has the audacity to call into question the pro-gun myth of the modern-day 'citizen soldier.' You know, the heavily-armed guy who in his grandiose dreams is linked to a heritage that stretches from the Revolutionary War to the Wolverines of Red Dawn -- and is only seen by the rest of us when he snaps and his last "patriotic" act ends up on the evening news.

Noting the reported increases in sales of assault rifles like the AR-15 in the wake of President Obama's election, Libourel writes:

"I suppose the people rushing to buy up AR-15s 'before it's too late' are counting on the anti-gunners' being magnanimous enough to ban the future sale of such rifles yet leave existing owners in possession of theirs. Either that, or they are planning to hide them in anticipation of an armed uprising or social breakdowns. Although I was certainly no fan of the Clinton administration, I had to wonder about those 'patriots' and 'constitutionalists' who advocated arming themselves back then with an eye to overthrowing the lawfully elected government! Although I didn't much care for him, Bill Clinton was elected president under the United States Constitution, fair and square."

Libourel then goes on to question those who would follow the logic of "survival guru Mel Tappan," whose "shtick" was that they:

"should prepare for the inevitable social breakdown or nuclear war by acquiring a 'retreat' in a remote rural area where you could essentially live off the land and arm yourself to the teeth with state of the art high-firepower weaponry so that you could blow away any 'looters' who had the temerity to trample your Jerusalem artichokes! (I guess you would have to have a keen nose for trouble to effect a retreat to your retreat before the social blowup or the nukes started falling...) I suppose for defending an isolated ranch or farmstead from the concerted attack of a criminal gang one of these rifles would have considerable merit. The same would hold true if one anticipated in engaging in house-to-house fighting in some sort of urban warfare, as taught in the 'Urban Rifle' courses at the sundry shooting schools. However, being an old-fashioned, low-tech sort of guy, I always felt that a plain old short-barreled 12 gauge pump gun or autoloader was all the urban defense gun I'd ever need. In most urban jurisdictions, it would be pretty hard for a civilian to plead necessary self-defense if he engaged in a shootout at ranges greater than the 35 yards or so at which buckshot is effective."

In a world viewed by many of his readers in black and white, Libourel has staked out a little island of gray. It remains to be seen whether he's exiled to it.

Jan has always moved to a different drummer. Sadly, Jan's piece is not on-line, but Jan is certainly entitled to his opinion, even if IMHO it's stone wrong. A quick reality check...today the news was full of a home invasion in Florida that involved up to 7 assailants in two cars that left the 2 homeowners shot dead. I've gotten reports of some major gangs ratcheting up their home invasions for fun and profit business. I like the heck out of shotguns, but in those kind of cases, I'll take firepower all day long.

Second reality check...Katrina. Again, firepower works.

And Jan, before you spend too much time dis'sing Mel Tappan and SURVIVAL GUNS (and keeping in mind that I am diligently working on a new book with the working title of THE NEW SURVIVAL GUNS: FIREARMS AND TRAINING FOR UNSETTLED TIMES), these are in fact unsettled times. The economy is teetering on the brink of...something. H1N1 has "jumped" Tamiflu in at least 3 countries, including the U.S. Israel, which has no sense of humor when it comes to national survival, is eying Iran and fingering the sharp edge of the knife. Pakistan, which has far too many nukes, is only a "country" in the loosest sense of the word. The entire electric grid of the U.S. can be turned off with a few nukes popped way up in the air over Kansas. We have a committed socialist "community activist" in the Presidency, a Congress full of second-rate comedians, a foreign policy that involved knee-pads, apologies and groveling, and a public obsessed with a dead pedophile. We're about to confirm a Supreme Court Justice who is proud of her membership in the National Council La Raza, which, in case you've been asleep, means "The Race." The borders are as porous as yesterday's used-up kitchen sponge. A major American city was destroyed by weather and lunacy. The San Andreas fault has recorded more than 2000 "mysterious" tremors in the last few months. California, where you live with those velociraptor-sized dogs, is bankrupt, issuing IOUs instead of...what were those things called?...dollars and is trying to figure out which services to cut or curtail. And Ryan Seacrest makes $15 million a year.

If you feel comfortable, by all means, pass the the Xanex...if MJ left any!

NOT AGAIN!

Yep...a little mulie buck launched off the side of the highway and slagged the driver's side of my hapless Honda Element tonight coming back from dinner tonight. These are mountain roads — you swerve at your own risk — so I just hit the damn thing.

Sucks...

Mo' Guns!

Just another day at the office...I wanted to do an SG where I talked about my favorite guns, guns with their own stories, etc. So I just started hauling out guns, then spent hours talkng about them on camera. And then we decided we — real, I — needed to shoot each one, maybe 18-24 times, for B-roll. I thought, okay, let's use this as an opportunity to practice. So I stood there for about 3 1/2 hours shooting groups, one right after the other, at 10 yards.

Sadly, the last 5 guns were boomers, mostly .44 Magnums. I thought I had a bunch of .44 Special, but NOOOOOOOO, I picked up the wrong couple of boxes, and rather than go home and ferret out more Specials, I decided to shoot the Magnum stuff — Remington 240-gr JFP screamers. Cool with my ancient M29...then the 3 1/2 inch Alpha Precision 629 custom...then the 329PD. By then my right hand was approaching numb, but the Alpha Precision shot great groups. On round 3 in the 329, the lock failed...the stupid "LOCKED" flag popped up and caught the hammer on the way down. I unjammed it, on camera, with a multitool.

I ran another cylinder full of the Remington stuff without incidence. But at this point I have to say that you should NOT trust an ultralight S&W magnum revolver with a lock for serious purposes!

Shot a cowboy match today and everything went great for me...unfortunately my Sweetie's Marlin .32 H&R pretty much came apart. She switched to a back=up Navy Arms M92 .38/.357 and shot clean the rest of the match.

Thoughts on Civil Unrest...

...from Claire Wolfe in Backwoods Home Magazine:

Here are my definitions of levels of civil unrest and a little bit about how they might affect us:

LEVEL ONE: The lowest level of civil unrest is when people turn on their own neighborhoods—as happened during the race riots of the 1960s and the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. Level One civil unrest can be deadly and destructive, but primarily to people who live, work, or must travel in the immediate area. Level One unrest is spontaneous, Dionysian, is confined to a narrow geographical zone where the protestors live. Police response may be harsh, but it's localized. Unless you're in the middle of it, you're unaffected.

LEVEL TWO: Level Two civil unrest may also be focused on a single area. But in this case, rioters or protesters have deliberately targeted a business district, a facility, a transportation system, or an organization to impose maximum disruption. One example: the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999; young people with violence in mind and rage in their hearts attacked an entire downtown, affecting hundreds of businesses and tens of thousands of workers who hardly knew what hit them. Another example: This spring, protesters in Thailand shut down the Bangkok airport, affecting who knows how many individuals and businesses. Level Two unrest is usually planned or semi-planned. The target is chosen deliberately. Although still focused in one area, Level Two can disrupt normal life and business in a whole region or country.

LEVEL THREE: Level Three comes when mass unrest or authoritarian crackdown causes disruption at state or regional level. Then, no matter what the original cause or location of the trouble, everyone in the region is affected. Effects might include travel restrictions, random ID checks, mass arrests, food and fuel rationing, controls on money and banking, roadblocks, and other harsh "emergency" restrictions.

LEVEL FOUR: Level Four is Level Three—but on a national or even international scale. It's martial law. If things ever get this bad, it's likely that the government itself will be a far bigger threat to everyone's well being than whatever the original cause of the clampdown was.

And of course, any level of civil unrest can lead to laws, regulations, and harsher police policies that end up affecting everybody in the long run.

By all means, read the whole thing. We're going to be talking about some of these civil unrest concepts on DOWN RANGE Radio next week...

Exhausted...

..from a day filming SHOOTING GALLERY! Short story is I wanted to show you guys some of my favorite guns...ended up shooting groups for four hours, with everything from a Walther TPH .22 up to an S&W 329PD 44 Magnum with full house loads...my hand hurts...

Also,WE GOT AN S&W LOCK FAILURE ON FILM! Flag popped up and caught the hammer as it fell. We'll get it transfered out of HD and into an MPEG to post on DRTV as soon as possible.

More tomorrow after a good night's sleep!

Interesting Tidbit on Colt

From the Army Times:

As of July 1, the Army has taken control of the design rights to the M4 carbine from its sole maker, Colt Defense LLC. Translation: With an uncertain budget looming, the service is free to give other gun companies a crack at a carbine contract.

The transition of ownership of the M4 technical data package marks the end of an era and Colt’s exclusive status as the only manufacturer of the M4 for the U.S. military for the past 15 years.

In late November, Army senior leadership announced the service’s intent to open a competition for a new carbine this fall in preparation for the June 30 expiration date of Colt’s hold on the M4 licensing agreement.

The Army is slated to finish fielding the last of its 473,000 M4 requirement some time next year.

Army weapons officials maintain that it’s good to have the option of inviting other gun companies to compete to make the M4 as it is now, if the need arises, said Col. Doug Tamilio, project manager for soldier weapons.

“We probably won’t do anything with it right now. ... We have what we need,” Tamilio said. “The good news is we will own it now; that gives us the flexibility to do what we need it to do.”

Small-arms companies waiting for the chance to compete for the Army’s next carbine view Colt’s loss of the M4 TDP as a new beginning for the industry and for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

60

Memorize This...

...from "David Kahane" on NRO. titled "I Sill Hate You, Sarah Palin:"

Yes, my friends, it’s once again time to quote Sean Connery’s famous speech from The Untouchables, written by David Mamet — the lecture the veteran Chicago cop gives a wet-behind-the-ears Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner, back when he was a movie star) while they sit in a church pew. “You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!” If you just think of us — liberal Democrats — as Capone you’ll begin to understand what we’re up to. And we just put one of yours in the morgue.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but maybe now you’re beginning to understand the high-stakes game we’re playing here. This ain’t John McCain’s logrolling senatorial club any more. This is a deadly serious attempt to realize the vision of the 1960s and to fundamentally transform the United States of America. This is the fusion of Communist dogma, high ideals, gangster tactics, and a stunning amount of self-loathing. For the first time in history, the patrician class is deliberately selling its own country down the river just to prove a point: that, yes, we can! This country stinks and we won’t be happy until we’ve forced you to admit it.

In other words, stop thinking of the Democratic Party as merely a political party, because it’s much more than that. We’re not just the party of slavery, segregation, secularism, and sedition. Not just the party of Aaron Burr, Boss Tweed, Richard J. Croker, Bull Connor, Chris Dodd, Richard Daley, Bill Ayers, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and Emperor Barack Hussein Obama II. Not just the party of Kendall “Agent 202” Myers, the State Department official recruited as a Cuban spy along with his wife during the Carter administration. Rather, think of the Democratic Party as what it really is: a criminal organization masquerading as a political party.

One I Missed...From Farmer Frank...

...on motels, no less...something I have a passing knowledge of. I use a modified version of Frank's system...primary gun in a shoe on my side of the bed, 2nd gun under the covers. A quick Walt Rauch story...I had a quickie trip to the D.C. area, one day so carry-on luggage. E.G., no gun, no knives. So my travel agent finds me a 3-star name brand hotel outside of Alexandria, the only room available on apparently the entire East Coast. It is late and I am dead tired when I make it to the motel, where the Indian gentlemen taking the credit card is behind an inch of plexiglass surrounded by transexual hookers shouting for their room-by-the-hour keys. Ah, crap, I think, but I am very tired. I get my key among shouts of, "We see you later, white meat!"

So I call Walt and say I am very tired, on my way to the only empty hotel room in the world, unarmed and surrounded by miscreants.

"Convenience store nearby?" he asked.

"Roger that," I say.

"Drive to the store and buy a giant size can of Easy-Off Oven Cleaner. Works better than pepper spray. Aim for the eyes."

So I did, and with a chair, the chest of drawers and my meager luggage stacked against the door, I slept like a baby. Here's Frank's blogpost:

MOTELS AND GUNS...

This is a subject that to the best of my knowledge few have written about, talked about or much less even taught in any kind of an armed self-defense course. What do you do with a firearm in a motel room? How safe are you in a 'rental sleeping room' and where is the best place to keep your blaster while you are totally in Condition White and 'proned-out' to boot?

Walt Rauch and I have discussed this at length over many years and I seriously don't want to steal his thunder on this issue because he came up with a method that I feel is pretty darn good and it should be his to explain. Not mine. However every method or means employing firearms always has good points and negative ones, so I will explain a method I came to on my own that works well in conjunction with Walt's. None of these ideas are the end-all, be-all on this subject. Just think of them as good starting points because so few have discussed this aspect of personal security in the popular gun press, or if they have....I was asleep in the back row and missed it.

All my adult life I have been a frequent traveler. And being the person I am, unless I was going off-shore, I was armed, sometimes heavily. Yet motels and hotels by definition are places where in all likelihood the bed you're getting ready to sleep in has been occupied by hundreds, if not thousands of souls prior to your dead-ass appearance. In the age of soft metal door keys, that fact alone always left me uneasy and lessen my belief in my personal security for the oncoming evening.

There's lots more, and all worth reading...

Nicely Written Piece...from a Liberal, No Less...

This from a small newspaper in Maine, written by freelance writer Liz Soares:

I've had the distinct feeling lately that we are poised precariously between two realities.

Our lives go on much as they have before. Our cars still run, our washing machines chug away, our children still manage to find summer jobs at McDonald's. Every so often the federal financial gurus tell us things are getting better. The Dow goes up for a day before it goes down again. Our jobs are safe. For now.

But then we hear the state government of California is writing IOUs. Tent cities are springing up in Florida. Major auto companies, once a mainstay of our economy, would go under if not for government help.

We seem to accept it all without a blink of an eye. So far we have left revolution to the Iranians. But we are talking about TEOTWAWKI among ourselves. Ordinarily peace-loving citizens are arming themselves. The murmur is growing louder.

I am listening.

Read the whole thing, and pass it on.

Jeez, This Stuff is Impossible to Parody!

I promise..this is the last MJ post...forever...at least, until he comes back...I mean, these are tough times for satirists like Yours Truly with headlines like these, from (of course) the Brits:

Michael Jackson to be buried without his brain

Michael Jackson will be buried this week– without his brain. As his family tries to finalise details for the King of Pop’s funeral on Tuesday they have been told it will be held back for tests.

They faced the grim choice of waiting up to three weeks for Jackson’s brain to be returned to them or go ahead and bury him without it – which they have decided to do.

Gosh...dare I say the word? eBay...eBay...eBay...

Anyway, was glad to see the Today Show finally cover Bubbles the Chimp. You could just tell that this wise, wise primate, with the richness of his experience, could reach such better conclusions than humans without that experience on almost any subject, especially those subjects related to bananas, moonwalking and female chimps. Actor, companion to the famous, witness to vile crimes, enslaved for his knowledge, engendering a nobility that transcends species. Powerful stuff:

These days, he spends his time hanging out with a group of six other chimps. Among his favorite things to do: eating sweet potatoes, listening to flute-and-guitar music, painting and kicking back with longtime buddy Sam, 40. "The two of them like to climb up to the top of a cupola and just sit there, staring out over the orange groves, watching the traffic in the distance," says Ragan. "He loves being up there."

Today of all days, lift a banana to Bubbles.

Presented Without Comment

The Gun Market & Economics 101

More and more I'm hearing that not only is the run on ARs over, the pipeline is starting to backup with unsold black rifles. This from our DRTV Forums. To be sure, AR variants are now available over the counter in many gun stores and some on-line outlets.

This would certainly be consistent with other "bubbles," and that may mean an opportunity. Remember we reported from the NRA Show that manufacturers thought we'd reached "peak AR" and that anywhere from 30-60% of their backorders would vanish as the market cooled. The time between the first slacking of demand and the normalization of the market, probably at least 3 months out, will see guns in the pipeline that were ordered by dealers/distributors but are destined to sit on shelves until the market levels out. 

A little less than 2 years ago you could find a serviceable AR for $600-800...expect to see those prices again, but not forever!  Act accordingly. Hey, Sarah Conner has an AR...so should you!

"Storm Clouds on the Fourth of July"

From Roger Simon at PajamasMedia:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen my country so divided and depressed on the Fourth of July in my lifetime and - no matter what Bob Dylan dreamed up - I’m not young, forever or otherwise. That includes the Vietnam War period when both sides at least had some conviction and excitement for the future, even if wrong. Not so now. The current situation is grim.

Obama is already over. In six short months the now-spattered bumper stickers with “Hope and Change” seem like pathetic remnants from the days of “23 Skidoo,” the echoes of “Yes, we can” more nauseating than ever in their cliché-ridden evasiveness. Although they may pretend otherwise, even Obama’s choir in the mainstream media seems to know he’s finished, their defenses of his wildly over-priced medical and cap-and-trade schemes perfunctory at best. Everyone knows we can’t afford them. His stimulus plan - if you could call it his, maybe it’s Geithner’s, maybe it’s someone else’s, maybe it’s not a plan at all - has produced absolutely nothing. In fact, I have met not one person of any ideology who evinces genuine confidence in it.

Read the whole thing...I agree with him...

Oh...sigh...

11 perfect stages, including one in the driving rain, and I throw away a perfect match in the "gimme" pistol segment of the 12 and final stage...a moment's loss of focus and away it goes!

Still, the best cowboy match I've had as a leftie!

-- Post From The Road

Happy Independence Day!

To those who serve, and those who have served, thank you

To those who paid the ultimate price, we remember.


-- Post From The Road

My Fun Match With My Sweetie

In Cheyenne, WY, sort of the Mother Church of All Things Cowboy, to shoot Hell on Wheels, the big cowboy regional match. No crew! No cameras! Just shooting for the heck of it.

After a day of shooting, I'm still "clean," no misses, and game plan remains intact...tomorrow is, however, ripe with opportunities!

Happy Independence Day Eve...remember our troops and remember that the people in Washington DC ARE NOT America!!!


-- Post From The Road

Jackson Kids To Be Sold on eBay?

Rumors are everywhere! Supposedly Madonna and Angelina Jolie have committed to bid on "the cute one," while little Blanket will come with a plushie Blanket stuffed toy, valued at more than $250, and a Michael Jackson Swiss Army Watch. Allegedly, money raised from the sale of the three Jackson children will be used to fund a new Obama initiative to provide free emergency medical care for celebrities as they are weened off soon-to-be banned Vicodin.

More news as it develops!

And speaking of guns, the most recent Rasmussen poll reveals...prepare to be shocked!...that Americans are buying guns because they "fear President Obama's gun control agenda:"

The Rasmussen telephone survey found that only 23 percent of the respondents believe gun sales have risen due to concerns about rising crime. Twenty-one percent are not sure. The poll also revealed that 63 percent of male Americans and 51 percent of women believe gun sales are linked to concerns about new gun control schemes. Another finding is that 65 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of those not affiliated with either major political party think booming gun sales are connected to fears about increased government restrictions.

Well, that makes no sense to me at all, since the inestimable Ray Schoenke of the American Antigun and Harlots Marching Society...excuse me...Hunters and Shooters Association recently guaranteed me that the socialist in the White House just loves guns, and we on the Looney Right should just "stop spreading the lie:"

Let’s get something straight: No one is going to take anyone’s guns away. There is no gun ban coming from the Obama administration.

The rhetoric about gun bans is ridiculous. Most of us know the NRA leadership and others use the specter of gun bans to raise money. But, it’s divisive, and damaging for all law-abiding gun owners. In too many new reports of late, we’ve seen the prospect of gun ban included as a rational for deranged people who have wreaked havoc.

I don’t want all gun owners tarred by the craziness of a few.

Wowie! I feel all tingly up my leg just reading that! Ray even said that he "staked his reputation" on Obama. That's impressive, but I was sort of wondering, "What reputation?"

Finally, I'm worried about Colorado, while topping the list as the healthiest state in the union, is falling behind on beer drinking. According to Sloshspot.com, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and New Hampshire are swilling more than 40+ gallons consumed per capita, while the Rocky Mountain High State only consumes 31-35 gallons per capita. Come on, guys! Get with the program!

ATF Does What ATF Does...

The on-going ATF "initiative" in Texas is the subject of a Houston Chronicle article that led off Drudge this AM (and my pod rant last week):

Federal agents hunt for guns, one house at a time 

In front of a run-down shack in north Houston, federal agents step from a government sedan into 102-degree heat and face a critical question: How can the woman living here buy four high-end handguns in one day?

The house is worth $35,000. A screen dangles by a wall-unit air conditioner. Porch swing slats are smashed, the smattering of grass is flattened by cars and burned yellow by sun.

“I’ll do the talking on this one,” agent Tim Sloan, of South Carolina, told partner Brian Tumiel, of New York.

Success on the front lines of a government blitz on gunrunners supplying Mexican drug cartels with Houston weaponry hinges on logging heavy miles and knocking on countless doors. Dozens of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — sent here from around the country — are needed to follow what ATF acting director Kenneth Melson described as a “massive number of investigative leads.”

Definitely read the whole thing...it's guaranteed to turn your stomach. The proper response for the lead paragraph of this story is simple — in the absence of probable cause that a crime has been committed, it is no one's business if, how or why a poor woman bought 3 "high-end handguns." It is certainly not the business of a federal agency who shipped in agents from around the country to basically use the Bill of Rights as toilet paper.

The fact that a later stake-out captures a crime in progress doesn't ameliorate the fact that this sort of "law enforcement" flies in the face of the American system of justice. The ends — federal agents arrest a low level gang banger — doesn't justify the means — pretending the Fourth Amendment is just a speed bump.

Here's more: 

On this day, agents weren’t wearing raid jackets or combat boots and weren’t armed with warrants.

Guns were hidden under civilian shirts.

Another tip took agents on a 30-minute drive from the shack to a sprawling home with a pool in the back and an American flag out front.

It turned out two handguns, of a type drug gangsters prefer, were bought by a pastor for target practice.

Wow! I personally would much rather see the Constitution crapped on by guys in Hawaiian shirts than in all that Federale "contractor casual" attire.

Here's the problem(s) with what's going on in Texas:

• The whole American guns/Mexican drug war story is bogus at it's very roots. Read real journalist Dave Workman's report here. It is simply another antigun initiative, designed to inflame the larger body of the public against gun owners.

• A door-to-door search like this is a flat violation of Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure. Our justice system is supposed to protect us from this kind of criminality. "Probable cause" demands that law enforcement agents go before a judge and explain the evidence against a person in order to obtain a warrant before entering that person's home, car, business, etc. and conducting a search.

• Yes, asking permission to search a home or car is certainly within the letter of the law, but it is essentially an end-run around Constitutional protections. Why? Because a team of armed federal agents standing on your porch "asking" to come in and look around is by definition coercive, even if they're wearing Hawaiian shirts covered in happy smiley faces. 

• The Fed's "asking permission" includes the not-so-veiled threat of what happens if you fail to cooperate. One DRTV member in Texas reported that his attorney told him to let the ATF agents in, lest they station armed guards on his porch, get a warrant from a "pocket judge" and tear his place apart as an object lesson for people who refuse to cooperate.

At the very least those who choose to stand on their Constitutional rights and not cooperate run the risk of getting crosswise with a Federal agency with a long history of ignoring the Fourth Amendment. It has been almost 500 days since the ATF raided Cavalry Arms in Arizona with a warrant reading, "Firearm law violations. Seize everything."

Since the raid, which including dragging the owner of Cav Arms out of his home in handcuffs in front of his wife and children, no criminal charges have ever been filed, hundreds of thousands of dollars of Cav Arms inventory was confiscated and has "gone missing," and the company has been forced to fight an incredibly expensive legal battle against civil forfeiture of property seized for "evidence," which the ATF filed for a month and a half after the initial raid without ever stating what the raid was for.

BTW, Cav Arms remains open for business — that's right, their FFL is still valid...one wonders why if indeed the company was a "criminal enterprise," as agents whispered off-the-record to the local MSM reporters, why wasn't their FFL pulled? It's SOP in gun law violation cases...