Giggity-gat! Can't Let the Terrorists Win (Again)

Yesterday I had the day from hell at work. Up against a deadline to get testing done against our 64 bit Oracle database, I had to do all of this in one day:

1. Resolve three separate technical issues in coordination with the system's vendor (not Oracle) by 3 PM to get a "go" decision at the "go-no go" decison point
2. Update the MS Project Plan governing the project
3. Update "Command Center" document (don't ask)
4. Meet twice with my upper management
5. Determine permission levels needed on two servers to be used in the production go-live
6. Go to Albemarle High School to get a form to allow my kids to attend Albemarle County Schools the coming up year

Everything got done, but I was left feeling drained by the end of it all. I ended up taking off from work at 4:30. There wasn't enough time to get anything else started or done, and I was really in no mood to try in any event.

I drove home, to Barboursville, and then immediately got changed into jeans, a t-shirt, and my fidel cap, gathered my SKS, loaded three 20 round clips, and then walked down to my brother's cottage to do some shooting.

He brought his AR-15 with two clips, and his .45 callibre Glock with two clips. We set up some targets against a hillside and proceeded to plunk away at them. God, to those who don't shoot, let me tell you something: There's nothing quite like shooting a powerful rifle repeatedly to drain away the day's stresses. Hippies can go ahead and insert phallic substitution joke here.

Whatever - it's really one of those subjects you can't intelligently comment on until you've tried it. Like parenthood or the military, you can read as much as you want about guns, gun ownership, and civil liberties but you can't truly know the subject until you yourself have done it. No ammount of reading will truly prepare you for parenthood or joining the military. In this case, you have to have owned a gun and shot it. Especially with rural gun ownership, there really is no debate in my mind about the nature of the civil liberty aspects or the essential goodness of it.

In short - suck it, hippies.

I'm also planning another expedition to the Rapidan Wildlife Management Area, this time on the weekend of 9-11. Possible attendees include me, my sister's boyfriend, a friend of his, my brother, and one to two friends of mine. In all likelihood we'll have to split up to not put too much pressure on the brook trout in any one stream.

Since the weekend is 9-11, I was thinking of getting a t-shirt custom made by my buddy Andy who runs the Black Cat Skate Shop in Charlottesville. They do custom t-shirts there. I was thinking of getting a Jack Kennedy graphic on the front, like this:

On the back of the shirt, it would say:

"Hey, terrorists! I banged all 72 of your 'virgins'...
Have fun with your Heavenly sloppy seconds."

Haha - because, you see - JFK is dead up there in Heaven with all of the virgins the martyrs are promised... ahhh, and ole Jack had a rep for being a ladies' man...

I think it's friggin' hi-larious.

North Cackalacky Visitor

My buddy from North Carolina came up to visit this past weekend. I lived in Raleigh during the dot com boom back around 1999 to 2001. I had my first tech job at that time and through a coworker I was introduced to a whole new crowd of folks. "E", as I'll call him, was one of those folks. He's the only one I still keep in touch with from those days.

In any event, once or twice a year either he'll come up to Virginia for a visit or I'll slide on down North Carolina-way. This time he paid us a visit.

Friday night we made the local brewery beer tasting rounds. We went to Blue Mountain Brewery and had many, many beers. We then swung on down to the South Street Brewery (affectionately known locally as the "Soussed Street Brewery"). After that it was off to Beer Run - not a brewery but a must on the beer Mecca rounds in the central Virginia area.

Saturday we mainly hung out around the house. E and I did some errands - got some lures at Dick's Sporting Goods, picked up a batch of California Common at the Fermentation Trap, dropped off recycling, and then went home. I whipped up the California Common and tossed it in the carboy to ferment.

We had a nice dinner - Apple Ginger glazed chicken on the grill, home made cornbread, and a salad along with multiple whiskey-n-coke drinks. Follow that up with some homebrew Oktoberfest, and then a sampler 12 pack of Victory Brewery beers and we were all lit up like three Christmas trees. Me, E, and the wife that is.

Sunday morning E and I went out to Barboursville to shoot some targets. I brought Hilda (SKS), Cletus (Remington D870 Express), and Harry (Ruger GP100 .357). Here are some pics:

Teh-hut!

Me and Hilda

Me and Harry

A nice action shot with E and Harry

We were firing Fiocchi 12ga. 00 law enforcement buckshot

Cletus putting the hurt down on E

E using Hilda's BSA Red Dot site to terminate the target

A Weekend with the Conway River, pt 3

Sunday, 05 April 2009

I slept like crap Saturday night. I dragged my arse out of bed at about seven-thirty. Coffee and camp slop. Mountain Dew (Electric Hillbilly Piss). In short order I was bright eyed and bushy tailed. Amazing how brisk air right off the bat along with massive doses of caffeine will utterly eradicate the effects of a bad night's sleep.

As I broke down my tent and gear I discovered my camera. It was in the foot of my sleeping bag. Who the hell knows how it got there? The only thing I could figure is that I must have bent over in the tent to pick something up and the camera fell out onto the sleeping bag. I must have then inadvertantly kicked it into the foot of the sleeping bag.

We had only two cigarettes left and those were gone in short order. So after breaking camp we headed out. At the entrance to the RWMA, we pulled over and Earl turned on his cell phone. Beep! Beep! Blip, beep!

Civilization had officially reestablished its noose on our necks.

<HAL>"Dave, you were away, Dave. Where did you go? I missed you. You should never leave me like that, Dave."</HAL>

Can I get a what, what from my sci-fi nerds? In the house with a 2001, A Space Odyssey reference! Oh yeah, and toss in an HTML reference for good measure. Dork-tastic!

We went for the first store we saw, needing nicotine by this point. Wolftown Mercantile Country Store to the rescue! It seemed like a cool little Mom and Pop operation. There was a large iron firestove in the middle of the room around which tables were situated. Some old men were at the tables drinking coffee, eating biscuits (they smelled delicious!), and playing cards.

There was a variety of ammunition under the glass of the counter - 12, 20, and 410 gague shot and slugs, 22 ammo, some 7.62 and .308. There was more, but that was all I got a chance to read. A variety of hunting and fishing gear adorned the shelves alongside normal convenience store fare. The door outside had a placard proclaiming this establishment as a Game Check Station. Cool. A great resource for future trips.

The lady that walked up behind the counter was kind of uncool, though. She either had a permanent sneer affixed to her face or she was doing a terrible job concealing her contempt for Earl and me.

I guess we didn't exactly look like the locals, but damn! I'm a Virginia native from Barboursville - not exactly a metropolis. Didn't she read my Hillbilly Haiku? Sure, I live in Charlottesville now. Yeah, it's a college town and, yes, I work for the University. But it's not like I'm a Professor of Gay and Bisexual Studies or even a professor, for that matter!

Maybe she was just having a bad day...

Busted Camping

So the last camping trip I told you about was a bust. Everyone that said they would go at one point backed out for some reason or another. I told my wife that I'd be going by myself and she looked at me like I was the Unabomber or something. Like a shack in Montana and a manifesto was in my very near future.

It wasn't like I was going into the Alaskan tundra by myself or anything. I was going to camp out on my folks' property. In the end I, too, backed out... on myself, I guess. I should have just gone.

This means that the first New Years Resolution that I've made in a decade is a bust. The resolution was to go camping every month. Previous to that, a decage ago, I had made a resolution that I wasn't going to make any more New Years Resolutions. I stuck to that one for a decade. This one lasted a month and a half... pathetic.

In any event, I am going to get this resolution back on track. This time I don't care if everyone backs out, I'm freakin' going.

Changing gears, tomorrow morning my brothers and I are going out rabbit hunting again. This time it'll be me and two of my three bros. Previously it had always been me and one other brother. And this time I have some sweet boots to wear instead of my Adidas sneakers. As awesome as those shoes are, they're really no good in the muck.

Changing gears again - I have been drinking my Nut Brown Ale - the one I kinda screwed up on and to which I had to make corrections. It's freaking delicious! I mean really good! You can taste the higher alcohol content which, in a heavier ale, I think is good. Fresh, rich, complex, and packs a punch!

<borat> Very nice! </borat>

Rabbit Hunting

My brother and I went rabbit hunting this Sunday morning. I was at my brother's place out in the Stony Point area by 6.35 AM and we were on my parents' farm by 6.55 AM. Sunrise was 7.18 AM.

This is only the second time in my brother and I's lives when we've hunted anything. I have read some tips and tricks online and this is the only body of knowledge we have to draw upon. We may end up going to Bedford to hunt with my brother's father-in-law. He is a skilled and very experienced rabbit hunter.

In any event, we parked the car on the side of the driveway, gathered up our Remington 10/22s, and headed out. We walked a couple of brush piles, some woodlines, and a fenceline with no luck. We then headed out to the back 40 of the property where there is a buried natural gas pipeline.

This pipeline translates into a straight strip of cleared land in the middle of what would otherwise be a continuous patch of woods thousands of acres in size. We were encouraged when we saw some rabbit scat in three different places. We also came across a beaver dam and other clear signs of beaver activity.

There were a number of small trees that were obviously chewed off by beavers and we also observed a number of animal trails centering around a creek and the small beaver pond.

We were walking on this buried pipeline and I just happened to stop. When I did, I heard something behind me. Just as I turned to my left, the rascally little rabbit bolted for the woodline right in front of me. I had practically stepped on the guy!

I snapped up my 22, aimed, shot, missed and determined that the next shot(s) would have to be unaimed. All of this in less than a second. My first shot barely missed. Basically I misgauged the arc the bunny's jump and the bullet went just over the back of the rabbit's neck. The critter was just coming down from a hop - had he been on the upstroke of the jump cycle I think I would have hit him.

After the first shot, the rabbit was into the woods (fast!!) and I realized I wouldn't get another aimed shot, so the good ole Remington 10/22 went into "lead hose" mode. Yes, I went all spray and pray on that bunny's ass, but to no avail! I fired six more shots as fast as I could pull the trigger. None of the rounds missed by much - I saw the leaves leaping up all around the bunny. But, alas, he got away.

Meanwhile, back in the warren, there's a bunny with a war story that he'll be able to tell his baby bunnies for the rest of his life. ("There were bullets everywhere! I dodged left and right and then turned around and flicked that jerk the bird!")

If anyone has any rabbit hunting tips, I'd love to hear them. Like I said, I'm a total hunting newbie. This was only my second time hunting anything and it was a vast improvement over my first outing where I didn't even see a rabbit much less shoot at one.

Homebrew, Homies, and Life

I'm going camping the evening of the 26th of January on my folks place in Barboursville. You can't beat having 55 acres of beautiful land in central Virginia at your disposal. My family's land has a source spring feeding a nice, but small, pond. It has forests, hills, fields, two creeks, and even a swampy little area.

There is an abundance of wild life that lives on the property or visits it. Deer are commonplace as are squirrels, rabbits, foxes, and a wide variety of other mammals (there's even a beaver dam just behind our northern property line). Black bears and bobcats have been spotted a handful of times on this land and mountain lions have been seen in the vicinity not too far from our farm.

Geese, on their migratory route, routinely grace our pond. Hawks have had nests in our trees at times and can still be seen on a regular basis hunting on the farm. They probably have a nest hidden somewhere in our forest.

Many people when asked to envision paradise think of some tropical beach somewhere, mixed drink complete with umbrella in hand. Unfortunately they also picture a luxury resort hotel staffed by third world workers as a part of that "paradise." In actuality most tropical locales are festering hell holes of malaria, insects, and a million and one varieties of poisonous or toxic spiders, snakes, etc. Most of these people would never dare visit this place without their precious air conditioned room and hotel staff to wait on their every whim.

I envision my parents' farm when someone asks me to picture paradise. I imagine central Virginia with its pastoral rolling hills, forests, mountains, and fields. The red clay of the soil says "home" to me, and I kind of pity those who have to fantasize about far-flung places to envision a peaceful and rejuvenating environment.

What more could you want than what is all around you? Almost any environment can provide for humans and most provide for our needs quite well. I watch some of the survival-themed shows like Survivor Man or Man vs Wild. Contrary to what you may think, these guys actually seem to have some of their easiest episodes when they choose the desert as the environment to challenge themselves. Some deserts are truly desolate, but most will provide you with water and plenty of food if you know where to look.

Now look at an environment like central Virginia and the abundance of life and sources of food is astonishing. I sometimes imagine what it must have been like to be a settler here back in the early days of colonialism. Sure there were dangers, but how amazing this land must have seemed to people coming out of crowded Europe. What opportunity!

I almost long for this decrepit, shallow society of ours to fail. I dream of the opportunity it would afford me to completely redefine my life. Sometimes I hate the grind I am in... I go to work, I come home, have too much to do and too little time to do it. I barely get to see my kids many nights. I go to sleep too late because I am constantly catching up with "things" and then I wake up tired the next day to face the same series of events all over again. Flip another page on the ole calendar.

"Shorter of breath and one day closer to death," to quote Pink Floyd.

Wow - quite a sidetrack I got on there. Sorry 'bout that.

Homebrews, homies, and the camping trip. My first batch of homebrew will be ready for this trip, so we'll be enjoying some fine IPA as well as whatever my brother is bringing from his homebrewing enterprise. A buddy of mine will be coming along, too. He was featured in some photos from past entries (here and here). The eyes are redacted to protect anonymity, of course.

We'll hang out, bag a rabbit for dinner (my bro is the top chef in town), and then drink many, many fine and fresh beers. An excellent evening, in all likelihood. I love camping in the winter. I sleep so soundly, wrapped up in my sleeping bag with the sound of the wind all about.

I can't wait, really.

Mindset

Let me be clear about the way I view our future and why I consider myself a survivalist... and for that matter, what I think of when I use a word like "survivalist."

The Future

Succinctly put, it's bleak. We've seen two million jobs evaporate this last year alone. Our manufacturing base is in serious trouble. Banks are clamming up with the credit and all our economy does is consume, consume, consume. We make nothing.

Politicians are more interested in scoring short term political victories than laying the foundation for long term sustainability and growth. The term "mortgaging our children's future" is such a cliche these days that the poignant image it is meant to convey is utterly lost. In short, politicians are long on gathering power und to themselves, and very short on actual, real leadership.

Our leaders, be they corporate or government, are no longer expected to produce results. They are bailed out or golden parachuted or pardoned when they fail or even commit criminal acts. There is no accountability. The meritocracy that once made this nation great is no longer. Our democratic ideals are dying out in favor of a nouveau nobility. Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes, and more.

Our executives in the governmental realm behave more like kings than officers of the public trust. Our corporate chiefs act like spoiled children of nobility who are given a small fiefdom to run... often into the ground. Corporate boards are comprised of executives from other, often competing, companies. One CEO may have a board whose members are CEOs at companies whose boards on which they themselves serve. Can anyone say mutual masturbation?

Our leaders are modern day robber barons; thieves, confidence men, and thugs. I mean that with no poetry and in all ways literally. We have yet to see the Obama Administration in action, of course. While I am allowing myself to hope a bit, I know history too well to get my hopes too high. Washington has a way of changing those who mean to come to town and root out the rotten core of our government.

The momentum of this financial crisis has not slowed one bit. No one talks about this, but the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are as much to blame for our financial problems as the mortgage crisis. The defecits we run (roughly $400 billion a year for the last few years) do not count the cost of the wars we are engaged in. They are funded with emergency supplemental spending bills - off books. The true defecits we have been running are north of half a trillion dollars a year.

Do you hear that sound? It sounds like a giant toilet flushing... and we're on our way out with the crap.

"Survivalist"

This word is oft maligned as meaning "gun nut", "militia freak", "racial supremacist", "radical", or "wingnut." This is not what the word means to most of the community.

While I am not a prominent member of the survivalist community, I do consider myself a survivalist. To me the word "survivalism" means, in its most basic form, "preparedness." So to be a survivalist means to be someone who is prepared or who strives to be prepared for the day when the trucks stop delivering me my food and when the lights go out.

To be honest, no one can foresee exactly what shape the coming gridcrash will take. Will the markets melt down and banks fail causing currencies around the globe to go into a hyper-deflationary spiral? Will there be an attack on Washington which will cause a lapse in centralized authority leading to riots born of panic? Or will budget shortfalls in the fed, state, and local levels coupled with high unemployment cause government to essentially be ineffective and overwhelmed leading to defacto anarchy? We saw how well the fed responded to a disaster like Katrina. Or, on the radical end of the spectrum, will a bug escape some Army lab and wipe out 90% of the world a la Stephen King's The Stand (minus the supernatural stuff)?

The point of the last paragraph is to say that there's no telling how, or even if, the shit will truly hit the fan. How does that influence the survivalist's mindset? I can't speak for others, but for me it means having a flexible, generalized plan that can handle as many eventualities as possible. It means learning a whole metric ass ton of information on the basics:

• Prioritization - What must you have? What can you do without if you had to? What do you do first?
• Water - Treatment and sourcing
• First Aid - Not bleeding to death
• Growing and Storing Food - Gardening, composting, and food preservation
• Hunting - When the supermarket runs out of meat, you'll need to hunt, kill, and prepare game of some sort. This will be especially important years when your garden's yield is less than expected
• Sanitation - Getting rid of waste and possibly using it as compost
• Energy Engineering - When the lights go out, can you get them back on? Can you setup a wind turbine? Could you construct one? How about biodiesel? A tractor would make that farm way more productive...
• Outdoorsmanship - If you had to spend a night outdoors in the winter, could you? How about a week? A month?
• Gunsmithing and Marksmanship - Fixing, cleaning, and shooting guns
• Construction - If a tree falls on your roof and knocks a hole in it, could you repair it?
• Brewing - Making your own beer, because what the hell is life without beer?

Just think of all the stuff you call on others to do. Do you have even the slightest clue how to do that yourself? Some things will just go away. For most, electricity will simply be gone or could be unreliable, at best. How will you preserve your food without the handy-dandy refrigerator?

Not too long ago we knew how to take care of ourselves. My grandparents canned food from their garden and so did my father and mother. They didn't do it because they were poor and had to, either. To the contrary, my grandparents and parents were on the more afluent side of the middle class. Our great-grandparents didn't have refrigerators and it was a way of life for them to grow food and preserve it themselves.

In hard times, can you trust the cop who hasn't been paid in two months? They may be in as tough or tougher a bind than you are (more likely the latter). They are just like you except they have authority and a gun. I have to admit, if my family were hurting and I had the gun and authority, I'd be sorely tempted to use it to my family's advantage.

A survivalist, in short, does not take for granted the notion that the cushy comforts of modern life will always be there. In many ways, a survivalist is a rationalist. Look at our economy. Unsustainable and obviously broken on a fundamental level. Look at our energy consumption habits. Unsustainable and terrible for our environment. Look at our modern society. Stupid, lazy, and isolated with no signs of improvement. Look at our leadership. Incompetent and corrupt.

Who wouldn't be concerned? Who wouldn't look at all of that and wonder when we'll reach the tipping point which brings it all crashing down? A survivalist is someone who sees the big picture and resolves to not be a victim. A survivalist may be your savior one day...

Shootin' Sunday

My brother and I went shooting again Sunday morning. He brought his AR-15 and Glock .45, I brought my SKS and shotgun.

After the buck of the .45, SKS, and shotgun the AR-15 was a bit like shooting a pop gun. I love it, don't get me wrong, but it felt almost like a .22 or something. The kick is just nothing on that gun.

We murdered the standard assortment of cans and plastic bottles. It was good to brush up on the ole marksmanship skills. I also needed to sight in my red dot scope again since I had to tear down my SKS recently in order to clean it.

Stockpile Progress, Part 2

As of now, my Apocalypse Stockpile consists of:

• Guns
• SKS, mounted on a Tapco Fusion Kit with BSA Red Dot sight (350 rnds)
• Remington 870 Express 12 ga. shotgun (100 buckshot, 50 slug)
• Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum Revolver (250 .38 rnds, 100 .357 rnds)
• Ruger 10/22 with 30 shot clip (1000 rnds)
• Outdoor Gear
• 3 tents (6 person, 4 person, 2 person)
• collapsible trench shovel
• Solio solar battery charger
• mini propane camp stove (3 fuel cells)
• deluxe first aid kit
• 6 rain ponchos
• hatchet/hammer
• machete
• buck knife
• 4 sleeping bags
• freshwater fishing gear (pole & decently appointed tackle box)
• 4 camp cook kits
• 6 lightweight plastic plates
• complete set of 6 utensils (fork knife, spoon)
• hand crank flashlight
• hand crank AM/FM/ShortWave radio
• various other cooking gear
• flint and steel kit
• waterproof matches
• stakes
• 100' rope (500 lb test)
• compass
• small binoculars (Bushnell)
• Army ALICE pack
• more... (can't recall at this point)
• Food
• 12 MREs
• 2 Other MRE-type meals (backpacking dinners)
• 5 lbs dried lentel beans, stored in an airtight container
• hermetically sealed can of various non-hybrid vegetable seeds
• 36 energy gels (little packets used by runners to speed electrolytes to your system)
• Miscellaneous
• playing cards
• silver coin (for water treatment)
• 100 M80's

There's more. This is what I can recall off the top of my head.

Recession Finally Admitted by the Fed

Finally there are rumblings from Washington that seem to admit to a recession. I think the American people have been tuned into the reality of an economic downturn for quite some time.

As of now, the Dow is down another 502 points. The other day it was up by around 900, but I knew that was mere volatility. This downturn won't stop until the actual fundamentals of the world economy are repaired.

The U.S. especially needs to put its economic house in order. We need to start making things again. That is what is fundamentally at the core of our floundering economy - we don't make anything any more. We make money off of money. We flip houses. We use credit.

There are many things that have gone awry, don't get me wrong. However, increasing manufacturing jobs in America would have the effect of decreasing unemployment, putting more money in the pocket of Americans. Two thirds of our economy is based upon consumer spending.

I think retail stores are going to take a major hit this Christmas. Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, and their confidence. Watch the stock market in late December and early January. Look for a big drop when the retail numbers prove to be abysmal.

I think the turnaround here will take a good long time. I think Americans have been shocked into waking up from a credit card coma. Spending will slow. Savings will increase. Less cheap crap will be bought in stores. Bad news for China, really.

If Americans are smart and we have good leadership we can come through this better and stronger. If the focus is on technology and research into alternative energy we have a chance. If America leads the way with a whole new fleet of battery driven and alternatively fueled cars we can again be the auto manufacturer of the world. If we invest in infrastructure like schools, roads, a new solar and wind electrical grid, and college we can again become competitive.

If our leaders have the political will to raise taxes we might be okay. If we are honest with ourselves then we see that raising taxes is unavoidable if we are to address our national debt and other needs simultaneously. If Americans can change their ways and refrain from spending what they don't have then each of us may yet find economic salvation.

If we hold our leaders accountable on the issues that matter to all of us we can save ourselves from ourselves. Issues like education, roads, jobs, a stagnating economy, and the environment are all interrelated and can all be solved on a single line of attack.

The simplest answer is usually the best answer. I usually denounce Occum's Razor as a means for oversimplification of complicated issues and ideas. In this case, however it is right on.

Problems like crumbling roads, vaporizing jobs and a worsening environment can all be solved by investing in green technology and providing government subsidies for green infrastructure projects. This would lay the foundation for jobs and a revitalized economy. It would allow us to export this technology and put America back on the economic map as a producer and exporter rather than an importer and borrower.

More Americans with good jobs boosts consumer confidence and provides the fuel for two thirds of our economy (consumer spending). More good jobs means a larger tax base. Government subsidies for technology research means many many small businesses getting startup money from either the government or venture capitalists.

And to cement the continued growth of this new economy you invest in education. A smart workforce is an efficient and innovative workforce. You also ensure this new boom is sustainable with massive infrastructure investment in both existing and new techologies (as they come online). Improve roads and build a new sustainable electrical grid. This will create jobs in and of itself as well - this will feed back into the positive cycle by putting more money in the pockets of Americans and growing the middle class.

That is a lot of "ifs." Believe me, I am aware of that fact. Every pay period I am putting a little bit towards survival gear and supplies. I am trying to hope for the best, but I am planning for the worst without a doubt.

EDIT: At close of trading today the Dow was down 733 pts.

Patriots, None and All

Don't talk to me about patriotism. None of you. This coming from a man who is not the patriot he could be.

First of all, the word is tainted in the modern context. Patriotism is not a bumper sticker or a ribbon. It is not the hollow words "support the troops." It is not blind allegiance to the flag.

You may believe that you support the troops, but what have you really done but say the words? Did you buy a t-shirt or did you put a magnetic ribbon on your SUV?

That same gas-guzzling behemoth that ships your petro-dollars to Saudi Wahhabi princes who then use that money to fund terrorists? Good job, Patriot.

Do you pay attention to politics? Do you vote? Do you volunteer your time or money? What civic virtues do you believe in? Do you actually know which candidates hold those same values? Do you even know what a "civic virtue" is?

Or do you vote a single issue and listen to slanderous mischaracterizations and vote on who you "feel" would be the best candidate?

Are you so ignorant that you wouldn't even know how to answer many of the questions above?

Enough questions. Too many Americans are satisfied to be ignorant. From rednecks and gang-banging thugs to soccer moms to businessmen in suits; ignorant one and all. Fat, dumb, and happy.

Modern pop culture is an incredible force for stupidity and ignorance. The Paparazzi and the obsession of the moment makes us stupid via distraction. Brad and Angelina adopted another baby? Who fucking cares!? MTV has been turning our teens into idiots for over two decades now.

Millions expend their energy tracking the lives of the famous when they should spend that energy in a way which might actually benefit themselves or their community. Watch C-Span if you must be a voyeur of the famous. You might just learn something.

Patriotism is love of the American Dream, not the flag or a President. Patriotism is a burning fire whose fuel is blood and sweat. With that blood and sweat we purchase freedom and opportunity. It is in serving country and community that we sweat and bleed. Service is the coin of patriotism.

And so we're clear on this - unquestioning patriotism actually goes by another name altogether. It's called fascism and it's completely un-American.

If I have to hear one more able-bodied man under the age of 50 tell me about how he supports the troops and we should invade Iran I will just loose it. Go volunteer if that's the way you feel. They'll take you these days, believe me. Shut the fuck up and put your own ass on the line if you think we should start a war that would spread across the Middle East, because you can't have my kids.

I swear to God, if this war is going on by the time my son turns 18 I will murder anyone who tries to take him off to fight in that tragedy. I mean that - I will stab you in the eye if you try to take my babies to go fight in a petro-war started by a retarded addict from Crawford.

But these same chickenhawks won't volunteer themselves because they are cowards. They are scared all the time because they're ignorant and they believe the local newsman when he says that there's "something in your house waiting to kill your children!!!" So of course they believe the President and other high officials when they intimate that Iraq will detonate a nuclear bomb in America.

These same officials who got six deferments themselves during Vietnam now want to commit our soldiers to wars everywhere. Fucking hypocrites. Fucking cowards. That's what enrages me about these couch-potato commandos: they assume since I don't like Bush and I think Iraq was a mistake that I must be some hippy-dippy left wing pacifist.

And in case you were wondering - yes, I have served a stint in the military myself. I was lucky enough to serve in a time of relative peace and under a President who didn't casually squander the lives of the military. I have spent time behind a trigger in the name of America. Have you?

I am no pacifist, ladies and gentlemen. I own 4 guns and I have served my country. I hate the Grateful Dead and love punk, metal, and rock. There's not a damned thing pacifist or hippy about me. Those who truly know me think I'm a bit on the militant side, as a matter of fact.

I volunteer my time and money to the causes I believe in. I serve on my neighborhood's HOA Board, I volunteer for candidates I believe in, and I put my proverbial money where my mouth is.

I recycle, am energy-conscious, I walk or bike to work, and I instill these actions as values in my children. Because what's more patriotic than taking care of the environment we all share? What is more an intrinsic part of our national heritage than the actual physical nation we leave our children?

And I think I should be doing more.

Hilda Gets an Eye

I just added a "red dot" sight to Hilda. A friend of mine loaned it to me and said if I liked it I could make him an offer. It's a pretty cool little item.

For those who are unfamiliar with what a red dot sight is, basically it's a lense against which a laser is projected (the red dot). The lense sits atop your rifle. To use it you keep both eyes open and look past or through the scope. The effect is an optical illusion of a red dot being projected downfield onto where the gun is pointed.

It was so cool that the wifey actually held Hilda! Guns make her nervous - or she just doesn't like them. I couldn't say for certain if they actually make her nervous. In any event, she held Hilda and peered through the scope.

There were ooh's a and ahh's as I toggled throught the different sight options. You can either have the laser project a red dot, a crosshair, or "T" style sight. Frankly I was quite surprised that she deigned to touch the gun. As I walked over to her I full expected her to recoil and go "Ewwwwwww... guns!"

Maybe this Sunday I'll work on sighting it in.

Hilda's First Run

I took Hilda out to the range for the first time post-makeover. I have to say that it's like shooting a completely different gun. The pistol grip, adjustable stock, and lighter weight give the gun a very different feel.

With the telescoping stock I can adjust the length of the weapon to fit me perfectly. The pistol grip gives the weapon a much more natural and stable carriage when sighting in and the lighter weight further enhances stability when aiming the weapon.

After a brief series of jams (two, to be exact) the weapon put another 50 rounds downrange without a single jam. I am confident that, had I brought more bullets, there would have been no more jams. So the composite magazine seems to perform well. I'm probably going to go ahead and order two more.

So many things about this makeover excite me, but the prospect of having a source of reliable magazines for Hilda has to be near the top of the list. I have a total of four metal, thirty round magazines for Hilda, only one of which actually works.

That's been my experinece, at least. Maybe if anyone actually reads this blog (doubt it) they could share any SKS magazine issues they may have experienced. I have had the worst luck with them. No more, though. I think this Tapco Fusion kit may have been the best gun investment under $300 that I've ever made.

Hilda Makeover

Things have been busy lately, hence the lack of posts.

Anyway - I recently completed a project to take my SKS off of it's original wooden body and stock and replace it with a Tapco Fusion system. And what a difference it's made.

I now have a pistol grip, composite body, stock, and magazine, as well as a telescoping stock and rail for mounting a sight. It now no longer looks like an antique. I have a shoulder strap and the pistol grip has a stash.

It took me about three hours to complete. Before you laugh, keep in mind this was the first ever gunsmithing of any kind I have ever undertaken. In terms of understanding how to do it, the Y00Tube video I linked you to above is very helpful.

I should mention that the strap was bought seperate from the Fusion system (for about $10). All told, the bill came out to $120 with shipping. I would link you to the Tapco site, but it seems to be down at the moment. [edit] Tapco site is back up. Here's a direct link to the kit I bought.[/edit]

I ended up removing my bayonet. Hopefully one day I'll replace it with a bipod.

Tomorrow morning I'm going out to Barboursville to try it out. I'll post on how that goes. This will be the kids' second time out to the range.

Gunshow Review

This weekend I went to the C&E Gunshow in Richmond, Virginia. All in all it was a mixed experience, I have to say. Let me break it down into these 5 categories:

1. Website
2. Selection
3. Vendors
4. Facilities
5. Atmosphere

Website - 2 stars out of 5

Pretty bad, although they did just overhaul it over the weekend. Before it had a black and white repeating gif background, was rife with misspellings, and had scrolling banners. It still has the scrolling banners, but at least they're not blinking now.

http://www.cegunshows.com/

Selection - 5 stars out of 5

Anything you could ever want is what you could find. They had everything from AK-47s to AR-15s to Glocks to Siggs to G22s to MG-34s to Tommy Guns to Mosin Nagants (for $89!) to M1 Garands to Ruger Revolvers to S&Ws of all varieties. There was more, believe me. Much, much more.

They had ammo of every variety, knives (from the practical to the purely ridiculous), and accessories that ran the gamut from helmets (modern and antique) to holsters to ammo cannisters to gunsmithing tools and the list goes on.

Vendors - 4 stars out of 5

The vendors were all very knowledgeable and courteous. They didn't really pressure you, either. Every vendor selling guns that I saw had at least one laptop station set up with Sprint or Verizon Cards for High Speed Internet access in order to process background checks. The longest wait I heard of that day for a background check to process was 30 minutes. Not bad at all.

So why the 4 out of 5 rating, you ask? Certain vendors seemed like they were catering to the hard right wing elements out there. I mean the really hard right wing element. Like swastika hard. Certain vendors seemed to have just a little too much Nazi paraphenalia for my comfort. It wasn't like they were carrying WWII collectibles in general. Nope - just the Nazi stuff. I avoided these vendors completely in terms of my purchases.

I did speak with a couple of these purveyors of Nazi ... ummm - "goods." Only one would engage me on the topic of the Nazi paraphenalia when it became clear that I was probing for non-purchase related reasons. He simply stated that there's a market for the stuff at these shows and he's just turning a buck.

His argument, if you stop thinking right there is a good one. Legally that is where it stops. But these guys weren't simply turning a buck. There were plenty of vendors out there turning plenty of bucks there that day and without Nazi BS cluttering their stalls.

But legally that's fair enough and he has every right to sell this legal merchandise. But for a crowd which claims to be the reddest and the whitest of the red, white, and blue I have to take issue with those vendors who sport the Nazi goods. I mean - really? Naziism and fascism are about as anti-American in spirit and cause as you can get.

Chances are your granddad fought alongside mine in WWII. Or at least they served somewhere in that conflict. Would they approve? It's doubtful that they would do anything short of roll over in their graves (my grandad, at least) if they knew that Americans were glorifying the monstrous empire they fought and died to protect the world from.

Anyone who embraces fascism is a short-sighted political pervert who should be ashamed to hide behind the liberties that the Constitution offers them, seeing that under fascism those freedoms wouldn't exist. Ironic, ain't it?

Facilities - 2 stars out of 5

Meh. That's about all I have to say on that. Meh. There weren't enough bathrooms - there were long lines all day. The place got very hot as the day wore on. There was absolutely no shade outside, either. The only thing the facility itself had going for it was its size. It was a large venue that could fit many vendors.

Atmosphere - 3 stars out of 5

A very mixed bag. Everyone was very polite, but there was a bit of an edge to the crowd. For instance, there were Brown Shirts there. About three of them. There was also a bit of a skinhead presence. They didn't cause any problems, though. Maybe four or five guys?

The minorities that attended tended to travel in groups. I don't know why this would be, but it might have had to do with the Nazi paraphenalia and Brown Shirts walking around.

The one bright spot is that there was a booth for Sportsmen for Warner. Not that a Democratic candidate's booth makes it a bright spot for the simple fact that he's a Democrat. No, I mean more that you definately had a right-wing presence there and it was good to see at least a little bit of a center-left presence as well. The fact that a bit of balance was tolerated was a good thing, is all I'm saying.

Gunshow Cherry

I get my gunshow cherry popped tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes...

Weekend Outings - Busts!

Seems like the two big outings I had planned for the weekend fell through in one way or the other. I was going to take the kids shooting out in Barboursville on my parents' farm with my step-Dad's old Ruger 10/22. After that we were going to go out to a friend of my Mom's place a few miles down the road to have a cookout.

Well, as far the the shooting goes, that was a complete failure. I knew the gun had a bad rear sight and I pre-ordered a new rear sight for the gun which had arrived on time. Victory, right? Well, not so fast. I couldn't get the old rear sight off without getting really aggressive about it. Since the gun isn't mine I just left the sight on my step-Dad's desk in case he wanted to try his hand at it.

On top of that, the barrel was plugged with what I can only guess was some sort of corrossion. To that end was left a little vial of some sort of ballistic corrosion cleaner, a cleaning rod, and some wipes. Okay - I guess I was to clean the gun, too. And I did try - for about 30 minutes. I made some headway with the solvent and cleaning rod. Every time I pulled one of the pads out off the barrel, it was filthy.

I managed to get the rod about two inches back into the barrel, but no more. The barrel was still fouled and my faith in this weapon was now severely shaken. I did oil the bolt up a bit (it was stiff as hell). I guess this old Ruger had been neglected for quite some time.

I thought I remembered my grandmother having some old bolt-action .22. So I asked her and she said, "Oh, I think I have something like that." So I followed her back to her wing of the house and she reaches into her dresser drawer and pulls out a loaded revolver! It was some old .35.

I said, "Grandma! This is loaded!"

To which she replied, "Oh, yes. Ready for action."

Haha. I love that lady! So I asked her if she had a .22 rifle.

"The only rifle I have is the one in the lamp."

Now, my Grandma isn't crazy despite her highly advanced years. She does have a rifle-lamp. It's an old Springfield 1903 (complete with ridiculously huge bayonet!) in an old-style wooden rifle stand that has a lamp built into it. It's actually very cool. Totally steampunk.

No worries - I took the kids out anyways. I had brought my shotgun and some target shells with me out to Barboursville. I taught them all some gun safety. Understandably none of them wanted to shoot the shotgun. I would've let them, too - standing there helping them manage the gun the whole time, of course.

Well, that was quickly finished. I only had 25 shells. Next on the slate was the cookout. We got there and there was a total lack of kids in the 10-14 age range. My kids (10 and 13) quickly got bored playing with the younger kids who were all eight and younger.

We stuck it out for a while, though. Just as the band was about to start playing, it started to rain. Between the soon-to-be-busted nature of the cookout and the bored state of the kids we decided to pack it in and go home.

Oh, well.

Gun Show in Richmond

Man, am I turning into some sort of redneck or what? Haha. See, I can use the word redneck without offending people because I grew up in Barboursville, Virginia, by God!

Me and a group of my buddies are going to a gun show in Richmond in a couple of weeks. I won't link the website because, man is it ghetto!

Tiled animated gif wallpaper? Check.

Misspelled scrolling banners? Check.

Rants about ATF agents and civil liberties? Check.

Mad ghetto.

Hillbilly Haiku

Biscuit on my shirt
Gunpowder buffets my face
Barboursville breakfast

Teaching the Kids to Shoot

My Dad taught me how to shoot using a BB Gun back when I was 8 or so. The first real gun I ever shot, however, was my Step-Dad's Ruger 10/22 Rimfire (also at 8 years old).

My oldest son is 13 and my oldest daughter is 10. It's high time I taught them how to shoot a rifle. My Step-Dad still has his old Ruger and has consented to letting me use it to teach them the way of the gun.

I'm psyched. I think, oddly enough, my daughter may enjoy it and take to it better than my son. My son is more of the cerebral type (nothing wrong with that) and my daughter is much more the physical. We'll see.

I hope the replacement rear sight I ordered over the phone with Ruger gets here in time for their visit weekend after next.