Veterans Day

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
— George Orwell

Thanks to those who served.

Thanks to our brothers and sisters in harm's way today so that we can sleep peaceably tonight.

Never, ever forget.

My Day for Artists

It has been a day of interesting conversations, including a long with with ace Old West artist and historian Bob Boze Bell, most interestingly on the moral differences between John Wesley Hardin and Wild Bill Hickock, followed by a long rambling conversation with cartoonist Chris Muir, who draws the wonderful Day By Day comic strip (featured every day by day right here on The Michael Bane Blog!) on the perils and joys of fictional women protagonists.

Tomorrow I have to see a man about a buffalo, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Like a complete idiot I failed to pick up one of the pristine German police trade-in SIG P6s (aka P225s with a funky hammer, photo above that I was too lazy to rotate) that were all over the place for under $400...this despite the fact that I got several e-mails from correspondents giving me the heads-up. Call me El Stupido...this is one of the better SIGARMS deals to come along in a long long time and I'd like to have a back-up to my carry 225. Allegedly, there's still a bunch of them out there, waiting to come into the country. Keep watching the skies, Mr. and Ms. America! Oh, I suppose that sooner or later I'll get around to trying a P239...

Ah, the Sweet Smell of Common Sense!

Thought I might start out with this from Charlie Rangel's website:

Gun Control-Congressman Rangel supports commonsense gun legislation, and has also requested that the House leadership take the necessary steps to facilitate bipartisan cooperation on this very important issue. He is also an original cosponsor of Effective National Firearms Objectives for Responsible Commonsense Enforcement (ENFORCE). This bill will: authorize increased funding for federal, state, and local gun prosecutors; improve gun tracing and ballistics testing systems; fund smart gun technologies which prevent guns from being use by criminals and children; and close a number of dangerous loopholes that hinder the enforcement of gun laws.

Been looking for the NYT post referenced by a commenter, but haven't found it yet. I would like to point out that the big dummy can't even spell "common sense," but hey, he is a politico!

And from Adam McKay over at Huffington, his suggestions for La Pelosi's immediate agenda:

4. Bring back the assault weapons ban.

Remember this? We were so knee deep in the corruption and lies of this administration and Congress that when they let this lapse without a whimper we didn't even blink. And it was during their big "make America safer" run. Let's just bring it back.

I got a quick bulletin from Jim Shepherd at The Shooting Wire, the only guy in this business with more (and sneakier) contacts than moi, that elements of the gun control agenda WILL be in the Dems' "First 100 Hours" Pelosi action plan...heck, I thought they'd give it at least 30 days. Jim also says he's hearing all sorts of stuff out of Washington, his old stomping grounds, that are leaving him "very disturbed."

Refer to my BUY LIST yesterday, kiddies...I don't want to see you left out when the tofu hits the humidifier!

BTW, our ace videographer Bill Beaver says with the Democratic victory, it's now okay to shoot Republicans as long as the bullet doesn't ricochet and hit a tree...

Gun Owners' SHOPPING List!

From CNS News:

Good Night for Gun Control Advocates

(CNSNews.com) - The nation's leading gun control group called Tuesday "a very good night for all of us who want to do something to reduce gun violence in America."

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, noted that in key races throughout the nation, "more and more supporters of sensible gun laws" were winning.

The Brady Campaign was particularly pleased that voters in Maryland chose Democrat Ben Cardin for the U.S. Senate and Martin O'Malley for governor, thereby rejecting candidates endorsed by the National Rifle Association...

While I have my fingers crossed that Dave Kopel's analysis on the state of the Second Amendment is spot on, I am far less sanguine about the operational strategy of Brady and the Violence Policy Center, who will be pulling the strings on our new Speaker of the House, Daniel-Ortega-in-a-Skirt. Remember, our enemies' strategy could always be summed up as "get what you can get."

Granted, the baby Dems who were elected on their Guns-R-Us platform probably won't support the whole Brady agenda right off the bat, I think most of them won't have the juice — or the balls — to stand against the Pelosi-Schumer-DiFi juggernaut, which has to be able to toss some red meat to the antigunners. I tend to agree with commenter Tim Perkins that we'll see the first antigun initiatives as soon as the Dems are seated. Don't worry; they'll be simple "common sense" measures that even Republicans can agree with, or have said they'll support in the past.

Hmmmmmmmm...what fits that bill?

Accordingly, here's my SHOPPING LIST FOR GUNOWNERS:

1) AR-15 platform rifle...if you don't have one, I suggest that you max out the Visa, borrow from the kids' college fund, sell a grandchild or get a job mowing lawns until you hustle up the bucks to buy one. I believe there will be a new AWB — probably sooner than later — it will pass the Dem Senate and House and will be signed by the defeated, deflated President. Hopefully, our gun lobby can blunt the worst provisions, but remember that the Brady weasels have had a decade to draft and redraft a loophole-free AWB. This is the easiest piece of red meat for the ultraleft Dems to throw to the faithful, because they point to the nudge-nudge, wink-wink say-no-more Republicans who gave lip-service to a new AWB knowing they'd never have to vote on it.

2) Magazines, magazines and more magazines...I would suspect that one of the first loopholes eliminated in the new, improved AWB will be those involving magazines with capacities larger than 10 rounds. Don't be surprised to see that "10 rounds" shrink to "5 rounds," and harsher penalties for selling magazine parts that could be converted into standard capacity magazines.

3) .50 BMG rifles...this is another area in which the baby conservative Dems and the dispirited Republican survivors can cave on and not get too clobbered by their largely clueless constituencies. Even in an era of Republican "control," the antis were very successful in demonizing the Big 50, and it's only Ronnie Barrett's relationship with the NRA that kept the bulk of the gun lobby from shrugging their shoulders.

4) AKs and the much-maligned SKSs...as Mary Pickford was once "told" in a silent movie when presented with a doll, "Love it quick; you ain't gonna have it long!"
Be prepared to hear, "You don't hunt deer with a Russian assault rifle" enough to make you puke 7.62 X 39, which is about the only way you're going to get the ammo.

5) "Military" ammo...that .223, .308, 9mm and the various metric calibers. Mostly because the minute a new AWB is introduced, ammo prices are going to jump. Plus, you can never be sure when pieces of "Brady II" are going to be unearthed and thrown into the mix, and one of the kenote provisions of Brady II — which the Republican takeover of 1994 prevented — was requiring an "arsenal license" for possession of more than 1000 rounds of ammo or components thereof. I mean, who needs 1000 primers, anyway?

Yeah, I'll readily agree that I'm paranoid, but every time someone tells me not to worry I feel a broomstick sneaking up on my hind parts. How many of you got "caught out" when the last Ban went in? How many of you — us — paid usurious prices for maagzine "replacement tubes" for those hi-caps we thoughlessly drove over in our Hummers? Hmmmmmmmm?

Something to Read While You're Preparing Your Ammo and Hi-Cap Orders...

Heaven knows it's the only good news to come out of the bloodbath! Dave Kopel's election analysis on this AM's NRO says pro-gun Dems are on the upswing, which is ultimately a good thing:

Arms-Bearing Can Bear the Defeat
The Second Amendment emerges from the election relatively unscathed.

By Dave Kopel

The Second Amendment has emerged from the biggest Democratic victory since 1974 with relatively little damage. One reason is that in races all over the country, Democrats returned to their Jefferson-Jackson roots by running candidates who trust the people to bear arms.

I do not disagree that the Democratic gains in Congress will, on the whole, be harmful for the economy, and extremely dangerous for the war against Islamofascism.

Nevertheless, the class of pro-gun Democrats who will be joining the House and the Senate includes some who will eventually become party leaders, and who will help move the Democratic party back towards its traditional position of respect for the civil liberties of the American people. A very constructive development, in the long run.

That assumes the new baby Dems can grow sets of balls before the Leadership grinds them into kibble.

Ah well, I wonder how long it'll take for the war to start back in earnest? I figure in Colorado the anti-gunners will get going as soon as the new legislature is seated. I was really liking not being on the front lines all the time...sigh...

BLOODBATH!

Oh hell, let's put a literary spin on yesterday's disaster:

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,
In the midnight and the snow!
Christ save us all from a death like this,
On the reef of Norman's Woe!

Yo, Longfellow called it...so we put our heads down and motor on, don't we?

Volk Posters

I haven't posted anything recently from the enormously talented photographer and poster-maker Oleg Volk. I thought this one was particularly apt! Go buy something, put it up in your gun room and maybe get people thinking...

A Thought for Election Day

“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
— Leon Trotsky

The final polls are predicting a Democratic sweep; if that's how the election pans out, we'll have peace in our time, right? Timetable for withdrawal? No problemo! So here's one last little Election Day tidbit about our enemies from screenwriter Dan Gordon:

[M]ake no mistake about who it is they want to kill. If you are a Christian they want to kill you. If you are a Jew they want to kill you. If you are a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Taoist, or a Jain, or a Muslim of a slightly different creed, they want to kill you. If you a secularist and believe in gay marriage, gay adoption, gay rights, or gay pride, they want to kill you. If you watch movies and like rock n’ roll, if you read Playboy, or Cosmo, if you wear mini-skirts, or “allow” your daughter, wife or girlfriend to do so, they want to kill you. When they say convert to Islam or die, they mean convert to Islam or they will kill you.

I know you don’t like that. I know you don’t want to believe that. I know you would like to believe only a cross eyed, red necked, right wing, apocalyptic, bozo hick like George Bush would believe such a thing, but that won’t let you off the hook. However much you don’t want to believe it, however much you would like it to go away, however loudly you whistle in the dark and comfort yourself with the sweet thought of Nancy Pelosi hanging her drapes over Denny Hastert’s fat, dead, humiliated body, it is still true.

I've said this before...something evil has risen in the east...we win or we die, or, to borrow another phrase from the great revolutionary Trotsky, consigned to the dustbin of history.

Happy Election Day...vote wisely.

Lighten Up, Michael!

Okay, after a couple of word-dense posts, here's the laugh of the week from YouTube:

Gangsta Granny

Prepare to laugh...

Dare to Struggle; Dare to Win

The slogan of the old Students for a Democratic Society back in the late 1960s...true then; true now. Tomorrow is Election Day...I suggest you vote as if your life depends on it.

Because, of course, it does, and in a very real sense.

I've gotten several e-mails on the Dems born-again support of firearms and the Second Amendment and why it makes me a bit queasy. Here's an interesting tidbit from the other side. the University of Chicago Maroon, the independent student paper (courtesy Glenn Reynold @ InstaPundit):

Election season is indeed in full bloom. Yet I can’t help but notice that something is conspicuously absent from this year’s festivities: Charlton Heston.

It is almost impossible to fathom, but it seems that gun control has seen its last days as a big-ticket issue for elections. This is in no way to suggest that the issue has fallen out of favor with the Republicans’ largely gun-toting constituency. It merely reflects the fact that the Democrats have moved on to issues that actually mean something...

Now, here's the real shocker part (and I don't think this particular editorial resulted in any riots, sit-ins or all-night beer drinkathons, although I'm not sure about the last one):

Finally, we must consider if it is really worth changing the Constitution in order to accommodate legislation whose benefits are questionable at best, since more extensive weapons bans would run contrary to our second Amendment right to bear arms. Removing a fundamental right is nothing to be taken lightly, should be done so only if the benefits are permanent and far-reaching. Though many in the intelligentsia roll their eyes at the possibility that we might need weapons to resist our own government, the founding fathers wrote that clause in our Bill of Rights for a reason. Indeed, we are currently fat and happy, and the idea of revolution and turmoil is farfetched at best. But have we forgotten the nationalist rhetoric that followed 9/11? Do we not remember that opposing the president’s absolute power, in those months, amounted to political suicide?

Demagogues and dictators can arise in all forms of government—just throw a pinch of disaster into a churning pot of desperation, and the fall of democracy isn’t unimaginable. (I am in no way comparing the president to a dictator I am merely demonstrating that the ideals of democratic debate can disappear very fast.) As Machiavelli claims in his Prince, a government best preserves itself by arming its citizens. What more powerful deterrent could there be to coup than having to go through Iraq—times 15?

Maybe there's hope for the younger generation after all! My own queasiness comes from the fact that for most Dems the scales fell off their eyes only after the Democratic Leadership Council suggested there was simply no way to win in while embracing a gun-control agenda. there are numerous examples (see them all here), but here's the uber-example that outlined the "Third Way" on guns from DLC's Blueprint Magazine article in 2001:

The party will have a hard time recapturing the presidency and building a durable majority if it treats gun-owning Americans like sociopaths. After all, roughly 40 percent of Americans have a gun in their home -- with even higher proportions of gun ownership in Southern and mountain states.
[...]
The solution isn't to clam up on guns, but rather to change the terms of the gun debate. There are gaping loopholes in our laws that make it too easy for criminals to get guns -- like the law that allows anyone to buy a gun at a gun show without a background check. It's time for Democrats -- and progressive Republicans -- to embrace a "third way" gun policy that treats gun ownership as neither an absolute right nor an absolute wrong and that calls for a balance between gun rights and gun responsibilities.

In this election, the "Third Way" policy is coming to fruition. It depends on the person, of course...I believe that Colorado's Salazar brothers, Senator Ken and running-for-reelection in Congress John — both Dems — will stand their ground. John picked up the NRA endorsement, BTW. But how many of the born-again Gun Dems simply picked up the DLC's working papers and said what they needed to get elected?

The real problem is that the leaders of party, as opposed to the DLC, are left-wing moonbats. The only people the leaders of the party are in touch with are al Quaeda and the editorial staff of the New York Times, which is of course pretty much the same thing. The new crop of pro-2nd Dems will have to weather staggering pressure from their leaders...I never like to bet on politicians of either party standing up to much more than a very light breeze.

From our standpoint, the potential disappearance of gun control from the national debate is very bad, because it leaves us fighting hundreds of local battles instead of one primary battle in Washington. And over the last three decades, we've become very good at fighting the big battle, but less so on the grassroots organizing level...the U.S. Forest Service war on guns in national forests is a good example. It has proven much harder for us to rally our forces around a diffuse localized problem as opposed to something debated on CNN.

A QUICK NON-SEQUITUR: I just finished reading columnist Mark Steyn's new book, AMERICA ALONE: THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, and I'd have to put it on the "must-read" list for any American. Essentially, Steyn, who's a super writer BTW, looks at the growth of worldwide Islam through the lens of demographics; i.e., the European countries are not breeding enoughly itsy-bitsy Europeans to replace themselves and fuel their huge statist welfare systems. They're betting on immigration to provide the additional population. Where is this immigration coming from?

Guess.

He predicts the primary countries of the E.U. will be Moslim countries in the not too distant future. Here's a little bit of Austin Bay's review:

"As fertility dries up," he [Steyn] writes, "so do societies. Demography is the most obvious symptom of civilizational exhaustion, and the clearest indicator of where we're headed."

Islam cannot enjoy "political sovereignty" in Europe. Steyn adds: "Those lefties who bemoan what America is doing to provoke 'the Muslim world' would go bananas if any Western politician started referring to 'the Christian world.' When such sensitive guardians of the separation of church and state endorse the first formulation but not the second, they implicitly accept that Islam has a political sovereignty, too."

Steyn also makes some other great points. Here's one of my favorite, on the success — or lack of it — of statist solutions to what should be an individual issues [this from Page 187; in Internet reference]:

But the only reason "a box-cutter can bring down a tower" is because on September 11 our defenses against such a threat were the exclusive province of the state. If nineteen punks with box-cutters had tried to pull some stunt in the pakring lot of a sports bar, they'd have been beaten to a pulp. The airlne cabin, however, is the most advanced model of the modern social-democratic state; the sky-high version of the wildest dreams of big government; it's Massachusetts in cloud-cuckoo land,

So on September 11 on those first three flights the cabin crew followed all those Federal Aviation Administration guidelines from the seventies. By the time the fourth plane got in trouble, the passengers knew the government wasn't up there with them. And within ninety minutes of the first flight hitting the tower, the heroes of Flight 93 had figured out what was going on and came up with a way to stop it.

That's been my basic rule of thumb since September 11; anything that shifts power from the individual judgement of free citizens to government is a bad thing, not just for the war on terror but for the national character in a more general sense.

Read the book...trust me...

Heavy Reading for Sunday

I took yesterday away from the computer, mostly to lay around the house like a slug. I also cooked up a wicked vegetable stew last night for dinner just to check on whether I remembered how the stove worked.

This AM, I'm pondering the fact that conservatives will probably lose the House of Representatives Tuesday because in the final analysis a bunch of morons couldn't keep their dicks in their pants. The next time a conservative tells me to my face that he or she is against "gay marriage," I'm going to spit on them.

Whatever happens on Tuesday, it will be the direct result of the libertarian side of the conservative movement — aka, us — letting the penis pirates get the upper hand. You may recall that I've been bleating and moaning all year long that the Republican Party has been relentlessly disenfranchisng the gun lobby, which I and lots of others believe are the powerful swing votes, especially in the Rocky Mountain West.

Tuesday, the turkeys come home to roost. Unless there's a last minute miracle, Colorado will complete it's shift from Red to Blue. The Front Range liberals will control state government, and we can look forward to years of infighting to hang onto the gun rights we've put in place over the last four years. At the very least, Denver will move to exempt itself from the state's "shall issue" CCW program, something Likely Governor Bill Ritter worked on diligently when he was city attorney.

So VOTE, dammit! As the banner in the closing shot of the movie On the Beach read, "There is still time..." And heck, Karl Rove could be right!

Nationally, I tend to agree with Dave Kopel...we will still have the votes to stave off Nancy Pelosi's febrile wet dreams of a disarmed America. A number of Dems are running on the Democratic Leadership Council's revisionist view of guns and the Second Amendment, to wit, we love guns! Cold dead hands! Etc. If they have any hopes of a political career, those Dems should remember that we gun voters have very long memories and no sense of humor.

I am more concerned about the effect of the election on the Iraq War. I won't get into the roots of the war or the incredible bumbling since Baghdad fell, but I believe in my heart that we must win in Iraq. I believe in my heart that if we cut and run, the Democratic Party option, we will bring the terror home at a level we cannot now imagine. I tend to take radical Islam at its word — they want to annialate us, as in wipe us off the face of the earth. They do not negotiate and they have shown themselves to respect only strength. Int he worldview of radical Islam, there are no "good" infidels or "bad" infadels, only infidels to be dealt with the way the Germans dealt with the Jews.

I am not alone in this view. one of my favorite — and certainly one of the most thoughtful — science fiction writer, Orson Scott Card, penned this commentary:

There is only one issue in this election that will matter five or ten years from now, and that's the War on Terror.

And the success of the War on Terror now teeters on the fulcrum of this election.

If control of the House passes into Democratic hands, there are enough withdraw-on-a-timetable Democrats in positions of prominence that it will not only seem to be a victory for our enemies, it will be one.
[...]
I say this as a Democrat, for whom the Republican domination of government threatens many values that I hold to be important to America's role as a light among nations.

But there are no values that matter to me that will not be gravely endangered if we lose this war. And since the Democratic Party seems hellbent on losing it -- and in the most damaging possible way -- I have no choice but to advocate that my party be kept from getting its hands on the reins of national power, until it proves itself once again to be capable of recognizing our core national interests instead of its own temporary partisan advantages.

I urge you to read the whole essay, then forward it to your friends before Tuesday. If you are not moved, you have the soul of a brick...

But against Bush's promises and the actions of our brave and decent soldiers, the tyrants can set the behavior of Bush's political opponents, who are doing their best to promote the propaganda of the tyrants. Every Congressman who says "We must set a timetable for departure" is providing ammunition to the tyrants in their campaign of terror.

Because even more than they fear terrorist bombs, the pro-democracy forces within Iraq and Afghanistan fear American withdrawal. Every speech threatening withdrawal is a bomb going off in Baghdad, killing, not people, but the will to resist the tyrants.

Bin Laden predicted it. The Democratic Party in America is following his script exactly.

Friday, Thankfully!!!

I feel a little better with a dozen new Brownell's AR 30-rounders in house, not to mention the five-mag packs for the Para and Glocks. I still need to round up some Sig 226 20-rounders and the back-up Mini-14 mags, but, as I said, I'm feeling a little better about the election. Still, two things you can never have too much of are magazines and ammunition.

And, of course, designer beer. I'm currently carrying the torch for Rogue Brewery's Brutal Bitter, a wonderful cross between the tradition English bitter and the obsessively Americanized India Pale Ale that every microbrewery on earth makes. At roughly $11 a six-pack, darned expensive, too.

Oh yeah, about my revisionist thinking on tactical reloads. You regular readers — and you know who you are! — know that I was extremely critical of seeing the tac reload missused. Here's the Cliff's Notes version of the "reloading controversy":

There are basically three types of reloads for semiautos (and I'll use GUNSITE terminology for consistency)...

1) Administrative reload — you replace the partially spent magazine with a fresh magazine while the gun is in the holster.
2) Tactical reload — During a lull in the action you replace your partially spent magazine with a fully charged magazine while retaining the partially spent magazine in case you need the extra rounds.
3) Speed reload — You drop the partially spent or empty magazine and quickly replace it with a fully charged magazine.

And yes, there are zillions of different flavors within the three catagories, but they all spring from a basic philosophy...keep the the gun charged and running. When the gun goes down, get it reloaded and running as fast as possible. When you have a gun on your person, it should be fully charged and ready for action.

Obviously, there are exceptions, such as when you're shooting on a "cold" range, that is, a range that requires guns to be holstered (or cased) empty while you're on the range.

Without going into a lot of the B-S that swirled around reloading techniques in various practical shooting sports over the last few years, one of the side effects of Hurricane Katrina has been a re-evaluation of how and when you should use a tactical reload.

A speed reload is absolute fastest way to get the gun running with a full mag...a professional shooter like Todd Jarrett doesn't even break his shooting rhythm while he reloads.

The fastest way to both reload and retain the magazine (either for the remaining ammo or because you have limited magazines) is speed reload, then pick up the magazine off the ground. However, when wading in a liquid chemical/biological sludge like what flowed through the streets of New Orleans, you're not going to want to stick your hand into the poison soup unless absolutely necesary. Ergo, don't drop the magazine on the ground.

In a situation like New Orleans, you might need to know how to perform a tactical reload pretty quickly...just a thought. I have in the past been critical of training that focused on high-speed tac reloads...I apparently have been overtaken by events and stand corrected. The speed reload is still the primary technique, but you might want to add some pressured tac reload training to your regimen, especially if you're a responder type!

Another thought you might ponder is the long-reviled lanyard ring. A lanyard ring on the butt of a gun allows you to attach a lanyard, attaching the gun to you. I know, you're thinking Teddy Roosevelt, San Juan Hill, Sgt. Preston of the Mounties, etc. Well, gunsmith god Hamilton Bowen offers custom lanyard rings on his hunting revolvers; he tells the story of the Alaskan hunter who ridiculed the idea...right up until the point he launched his $4000 custom blaster into a fast-running Alaskan river.

In the case of a Katrina, a lanyard would save a responder having to fish around in the toxic muck for a dropped gun...and yes, it does happen! Especially in the middle of the night in a hurricane, etc. It's interesting to me that while current LEO and military firearms requirements (go read the Request for Information for a potential new handgun for the Air Force, BTW) always include a requirement for an accessory rail for mounting weapons lites, lasers, blender attachments, bayonets, etc., a lanyard attachment is rarely mentioned.

Also in the "interestingly enough" category, Gemtech, the suppressor guys, make a nice Tactical Retention Lanyard. Hopefully, we'll learn from experience and have a gun to attach said lanyard to!

Final Proof That the Extreme Sports Trend is O-VAH!

Take the Russian Bubble Baba Challenge, the newest extreme sport of white water rafting on inflatable love dolls.

Really...

I swear, I can't make this stuff up! The link is to the English translation page...it's a mechanical translation, so it reads like a instruction manual for a really crummy Japanese MP-3 player bootlegged in from Singapore.

This'll probably be in the X-Games next year...

Never Storm Ted Nugent When He's On Stage...

...and here's why! Here's the press release from Cobra Derringers and Ed Roman Guitars:

Cobra Strikes a Chord!
“The ultimate in conceal and carry”

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – A musician strums a few chords of his custom, Quicksilver guitar crafted by the one and only Ed Roman. A plain spruce top with a Korina wood back and a Macassar ebony neck give this guitar a plain beauty. But wait, what is this? A magnetic quick remove panel on the back houses a .38 Special Big Bore Derringer with a bright chrome finish by Cobra Enterprises of Utah, Inc. The Derringer’s 4.65” overall length and 3.31” overall height makes it ideal for conceal and carry or in this case, play and carry.

No, it’s not a Quentin Tarantino movie; this is a custom constructed Ed Roman guitar with hidden gun panel for Mr. Ted Nugent. Unlike, the outspoken rocker, hunter and gun advocate Ted Nugent; the Cobra Derringer is just the opposite: small, quiet and extremely concealable. There is absolutely nothing concealable about the Nuge! And we wouldn’t want him any other way.

That guitar, for lack of a better word, rocks! You can, of course, always visit Brother Ted at Ted World Command. I check it out every so often to make sure Ted isn't negotiating with aliens or organizing hunts on Mars...

Kopel Says End of World Not Imminent...Thankfully

My friend Dave Kopel from the Independence Institute does a world-class job of handicapping Tuesday's election and outlining the implications for the Second Amendment in today's NRO:

Things look a lot better for the Second Amendment than they do for the Republican party. A race-by-race analysis of the Senate suggests that, while party control of the Senate could change, the Senate is very likely to retain a pro-gun working majority.

That's certainly good news, but we still need to haul our sorry butts out and vote Tuesday. As a libertarian of sorts, a Dem House and a Rep Senate seems like a formula for gridlock, which is a pretty good thing in my book. Maybe they'll give up annoying us and spend all their time (and our money) playing badminton.

A Vague Sense of Humanity Peaks Through

Or something like that...my Sweetie insisted that I sleep in to stave off the ebola, dengue fever or perhaps the common cold that seems to be knock knock knocking at Michael's door. As a reult, I feel pretty good...hmmm...maybe I should always do what my Sweetie suggests...

Whoa! Did you hear those alarm bells at Men Central go off? Sorry...

Anyhow, I know what you're all really interested in this AM is the male equivalent of the WonderBra, the WonderCup. Here's the advertising slogan:

"The new 'wondercup' technology in these attention-grabbing, all-cotton Patriot briefs will have you seriously looking bigger and feeling amazing."

Well, you're just gonna to have to read abut it yourself right here, because here at Ripley's Ranch, we're resoundingly anti-codpiece, but yes, I am happy to see you!

Instead, I want to touch on losing friends to politics and re-evaluating the tactical reload (and lanyard rings). I could tell you the two subjects are connected, but they're not. Not even moderated related...I believe the High Zoot eyedrops I'm pouring into my aggrieved right eye are, as a side effect, causing me to eliminate mental transitions and exist totally in a world of non sequiturs. To say nothing of the dog...

The Old and Dying Gray Lady of Bloomberg's Happy Gun-Free Paradise ran this interesting story on friends and even families breaking up over politics:

But as the fissures that opened after the 2000 election have become more extreme over the last six years, the divisions are playing out in small and personal ways, influencing friendships, acquaintances and even family dynamics. In some cases, the divisions have caused painful rifts. In others, they have simply produced a wary quiet.

But James Taranto, in his must-read column Best of the Web, over on OpinionJournal notes an interesting point first brought out by blogger Josh Trevino: "every person in the piece who actively rejects a friend or family member over politics is a Democrat" From Trevino's blog:

To borrow a non-leftist parallel, one is reminded of Ayn Rand's furious fault-finding with those who dared disagree with her. . . . But Rand's group was, and remains, essentially a cult. The Democratic Party is not. Or, I should say, it didn't used to be.

I think I mentioned a while back that my Sweetie and I were "braced" in our favorite Mexican restaurant in Boulder by a person I thought of as a good friend, who spewed an apparently endless string Daily Kos "Bush Is Satan"-isms and nearly succumbed to wholesale political apoplexy before we shrugged it off and left.

I will readily admit that I am just a touch out of step with Boulder — if the folks at my favorite hippie restaurant/brewpub Mountain Sun knew what I did for a living, they wouldn't seat me. They'd probably even stone me, if they could un-stone themselves...however, politics is politics, and friendship — so I thought — is something else.

We ran into the same person again, at the same restaurant — Rio, for the margaritas...don't miss it if you're in Boulder for a peace demonstration or the Annual Beer Riots at the University of Colorado...they also have a wicked cool biking jersey for sale.

This time, our one-time friend clocked instantly upon seeing us, spewing spittle and a string of almost non-sensical 1960s SDS slogans, concluding with, "I'll bet you want to kill a Commie for Christ, doncha?" To which I replied, "Well, at least I have the means to do so if I choose," and left the scene.

"That was odd," said my Sweetie.

I am reminded of my friend Doug Marlette, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial (and usually very liberal) cartoonist, who was shunned by his leftie friends when his "What Would Mohammed Drive?" cartoon (Mohammed in a U-Haul loaded with rockets; read about it in the Columbia Journalism Review) triggered the usual Islamic response...death threats, blah blah.

The question is, I suppose, at what point did liberalism become so wildly intolerant of even the slightest differing opinion?

My particular branch of libertarianism, which is centered around Bill of Rights issues (of which the Second is the usual battleground), demands tolerance. To wit, I don't care what you do as long as you do it on your own property and don't involve me or mine in it.

If you want to hold Pagan rituals involving vast amounts of marijuana, nakkedness and baying at the moon while marrying multiple members of the same sex, go to it...I'll send a congrats card — Hallmark makes those, don't they? Just don't drive impaired., because that moves you from the personal to the public. I accept that there are good people who disagree with me...unfortunately, none of them are in the House or Senate!

I will readily admit (had my former friend given me 10 seconds without spittle) that Alf the Wonder Beagle could have done a better job of running the war in Iraq than George Bush, and that the current batch of Republicans "politicians" would make a maggot gag. But DO NOT serve me up a left-wing whacko cut-and-run coward gun-hating dim bulb like Nancy Pelosi as an alternative! I am tolerant, not suicidal.

Whoops...gotta work!

We'll get to the tactical reload later today.

Bring on the Legions of the Dead!

My good friend Tom Gresham, host of Gun Talk Radio and the new Personal Defense TV, took this photo last week at GUNSITE. You can see that I'm clearly ready for the Armies of Darkness (significant cultural reference: "Good? Bad? I'm the one with the gun!").

This is, BTW, just about my all-time favorite AR set-up...16 1/2-inch barrel; retractable CAR stock, flat-top receiver with red-dot optics, in this case an Aimpoint M3 and the 3X multiplier right behind it; SureFire Scout Light mounted directly below the barrel with pressure switch mounted on the right side of the handguard for weak-hand use and the SureFire Suppressor.

I was running this gun against a 50-yard Pepper Popper and worrying it to death, just about as fast as I could pull the trigger. Unfortunately, this is not my personal AR. Right now I have two ARs, the one we built on Season 1 of SHOOTING GALLERY (the one I'm holding on the SG website) and my JP Enterprises competition rifle.

The yellow AR is a plain-vanilla version with a carrying handle, built on an excellent DPMS lower. I think of it as a house gun — light, maneuverable, quick to bring on close-up (inside 25 yards) targets. The JP is a racehorse...it's currently equipped with an Aimpoint M2 I got from a friend of mine who used to be in one of those unnamed special ops groups, and it shoots a lot better than I can.

Based on my week at GUNSITE, I'm going to set-up the new S&W M&P-15 like the gun above, with one change. Instead of the two-part Aimpoint set-up, I'm going to go to a dedicated tactical scope...a Leupold Mk-4 1-3X CQ/T, methinks. The reason for this is my pathetic right eye, which is still in free-fall. I spent a long afternoon yesterday at the opthamologist's office, where he confirmed that I've lost about 30% of the vision in my right eye over the last four months (and that I now have, oh joy, "secondary glaucoma" in that eye as well). The good news is that this type of glaucoma is controllable, and my vision is still correctable to close to 20/20, once the various eye problems are under control. Adjust & adapt!

The vision stuff isn't an issue with the handgun, because I shoot with both eyes open. The left eye picks up the slack. With a rifle, though, especially at distances beyond 50 yards, it's just too much stress on my right eye without some magnification. The Leupold is a fine scope, and about 50% of the cost of an ACOG, another potential choice. I'm thinking of going to a higher power Leupold Tactical scope on the JP Enterprises gun, maybe the 2.5-8X. I need to talk to John Paul of JP and 3-gun champion Mike Voight about that choice.

And, yes, I think I'm gonna suck it up and jump through the hoops for the suppressor...I might want to use my ears again after firing this thing in a contained space!

The S&W already has a Wilderness Tactical single-point sling fitting, via a Brownell's sling adaptor, and my plan is to fit the same adaptor to my other ARs and my pump shotguns. No, a single point sling isn't as fast as a full-blown 3-point Giles sling, but hey, it doesn't require a memory card and ballet training to get into, either!

I'm half-way considering converting the little DPMS carbine into a dedicated 9mm gun, since I always have many thousands of rounds of 9mm lying around and it'd be a good gun for training. My good friend Alan Samuel, who you've seen several times on SG, has a really nice magazine block and has done some excellent conversions. Maybe with el-cheapo Sten magazines...I'll keep you informed.

You all know I've issued a BUY HI-CAP MAGAZINES RIGHT NOW alert, in case of a Dem debacle in next week's elections. If the Dems sweep, think the price of hi-caps will go up??? I feel a little better about our titular friends, the Republicans, holding onto at least a piece of the government, but it never hurts to be prepared. I've bought fresh, clean AR, SIG, Glock and Para-Ordnance mags, and I'll probably add a couple of factory Mini-14 20-rounders (the only Mini hi-caps that work 100%, BTW!) just to round things out.

I do have an AR MAGAZINE SHOCKER for you...who do you suppose supplies most of the AR magazines to the boys at SOCOM? Try Brownell's!

The Brownell's 30-rounder is the mag of choice for the special ops community. I had a long and really illuminating talk with Pete Brownell about the whys and wherefores of the success of the Brownell's mag. Pete emphasized that the Brownell's magazine is made to the current military spec. He told me that mil-spec is constantly changing; the specs for the magazines have changed seven times this year alone, mostly driven by Real World experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. So when you go to El Cheapo Magazines and buy "mil-spec" green follower magazines, the question is, "Which mil-spec?"

Yes, the Brownell's magazines are more expensive, $17.95 MSRP, versus a more-or-less $12 MSRP "on "current green-follower mil-specs." You tell me what a 100% magazine is worth! I've standardized on the Brownell's; you might consider doing the same.

ALSO BTW, I tried to give you all the links for this stuff to stave off the "where can I get that?" emails. It always irritated the hell out of me when I read about something that I thought I needed, only to find that the publication didn't bother to tell me where to find it!

The Physics of Pole Dancing

Unlike you, I did not sleep through my physics classes either in high school or college, where I was (bizarrely, considering my life trajectory) a Dean's List student in physics and math. Luckily, I discovered that I could in fact major in movies, which allowed me to eat popcorn, drink beer and get laid.

Still, I think I am carrying the torch for physics...so in an effort to spread the gospel, I offer you Popular Science's excellent analysis of the force vectors affecting a crashing pole dancer. Go see the video here, then ponder this:

She now has a sizeable amount of angular momentum moving counterclockwise around the pole, and this can be halted only by an external force...

If they had had this kind of analysis when I was in college, I might have stayed in physics, discovered commercially feasible cold fusion, bought Bill Gates' house and started my own rock band with Steven King, George Smoot*, John C. Mather*, Angelina Jolie and that nerdy guy on NUMB3RS.

(*Winners of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics for — and let me get this exactly right — "their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation." Anybody who can discover that can rock!)

A Fading Flash of Pink

Even as my cherubs and seraphim report that a major firearms company is negotiating with a cartoon character — a very hot cartoon character, to be sure — to act as spokesman, word comes that one the most important cultural icons in America is headed for the recycle bin of history.

The pink flamingo is dead.

This from the Florida Sun-Sentinel:

RIP: Pink Flamingo, 1957-2006

The pink plastic flamingo, a Florida-inspired icon that has been reviled as kitschy bad taste and revered as retro cool, is dead at age 49.

The pop culture symbol met its demise after its manufacturer, Union Products, of Leominster, Mass., was socked with a triple economic threat -- increases in costs of electricity and plastic resin combined with loss of financing. Production ended in June, and the plant is scheduled to close Nov. 1, according to president and CEO Dennis Plante. Union Products made 250,000 of its patented plastic pink flamingos a year in addition to other garden products.

Sigh...sure, change is inevitable, but it certainly pains us here at the Mountain Redoubt to see such an enduring, and inspiring, image pass into the mists. Somewhere in an alternative universe, Travis McGee is staring at the dreadful lemon sky, a tear slipping from one fearful yellow eye. Meyer laughs quietly in the background, fixing yet another Boodles on ice...

AHHHHH, Halloween...

WARNING: SEXIST POST! Cover your eyes!

I got home late last night from GUNSITE, and, as it happens, drove across the University of Colorado campus around 1 AM. Apparently, Friday night was a big Hallowween party night, and I have to say the wee hours campus scenery was...impressive.

"Bondage Slut" seemed to be a particularly popular costume. I saw two — count 'em! — Little Miss Muffetts to whom I would happily pay money to see them eating their curds and whey. And that's not to mention the anime-tinged Catholic schoolgirl who actually caused traffic on Broadway to swerve as if under the influence of a powerful wind.

If I had a teenaged daughter, I'd probably move to a different planet. Since I don't, I'm only sorry I didn't have my camera...

ADDENDUM: My Sweetie suggested that if didn't straighten up, she'd dress up as an attorney and I'd be sorry...