Why I'm Voting Against Obama, Part III...

...because I'm pretty sure he wants to make things like this illegal:

And maybe even this, too:

All those nasty, pointy and/or projectile-y things, in the hands of children no less! The horror! Won't someone please step in and save us from ourselves?

Okay, that's enough fun-poking... This was our past weekend at Lone Tree Scout Reservation. Took the family camping - in a tent no less - where the kids got to try their hand at the obstacle course, handicrafts, and canoe paddling as well as the archery and BB guns shown above (hey, I had to go with the martial aspects, didn't I?)

Everyone had a blast (pun intended), no one shot their eye out, and I was finally motivated to get off my duff and get my application in to the local gun range (which also has an archery range) so the boy can progress from BB guns to .22 rifles...

Life. Is. Good.

That is all.

Yeah, Tell Us How That Works For You...

McCain a hero, but lacks command experience

Yep. You read that right. The Obama campaign is questioning John McCain's experience.

Let's see how far this one gets...

That is all.

Northeast Blogger Meet II: Meat, Greet, and Skeet

I started putting up an update to the update here and realized it was its own post...

We have updates to the update. First off, the range is confirmed. Location to be divulged via e-mail (so if I don't have your e-mail, shoot me one through my profile).

---

The range owner has the following requests:

1. The four rules be obeyed at all times while shooting (of course);

2. All shooting must be contained to the actual backstop of the range (will be apparent at the range), skeet/trap excepted (light target birdshot);

3. Any and all adult beverages be consumed long after the guns are put away (once again, of course).

Breaking any of these requests will be grounds for immediate dismissal from the premises, as well as earning my undying enmity. I can't imagine it being an issue.

---

Marko, Liisa, and TOTWTYTR will be attending, bringing the total so far to nine.

Several commenters have expressed interest. At this point there's eight people going; the range can only accomodate ~ a dozen folks. Future interests and updates will indicate if there is room for expansion.

---

As for food, we can run it one of two ways: Pot luck style, where everybody brings something of interest, or send-out to a local sub shop. Sending out has the added advantage of easier clean up and less prep time (which means more shootin' time...)

Please bring your own chairs/tables/etc. I'll be bringing my camping table and some folding camp chairs, but there will be no formal accomodations.

That is (most certainly not) all.

Friday Gun Pr0n #65

Had to reach waaaaay back in the safe for today's gun pr0n, and that's a crying shame. I am absolutely horrified that this beautiful firearm has been neglected and under-represented.

That's a standard Mosin-Nagant 91/30 chambered in the very manly 7.62X54mmR cartridge, a staple of the Russian infantry since its introduction in 1891. Yes, 15 years older than the venerable .30-06...

I would have taken the picture with the bayonet attached except that I would have needed to shoot the picture from my second story window to fit everything in. Without the bayonet on I still had to stand on a chair to get the whole rifle in the shot - that's a 32"X50" map of the US for the background.

Next week, a rifle that's about as far from this shoulder-kickin' beast as possible...

That is all.

Update: Northeast Blogger Meet-Greet-Skeet, part 2

Well, it looks like this is starting to turn into something...

So far we have six takers:

Liberty
JD
doubletrouble (I think; he didn't actually say "I'm in", but...)
Bruce (our "ringer" - big name blogger if you will)
Ted (who I really need to add to the blogroll, but I may be a lazy bastard and wait until after the shoot so I don't have to add him twice...) :)
Weer'd Beard (who I also really need to add to the 'roll, see above comment...)

Jeff Soyer of Alphecca fame is a possibility, and I'll send an invite to Marko as well (for more big-name bloggers!)

We *may* have a private range in south-central NH.

We have a tentative date - Sunday, July 20th.

Holy shit, this might just happen...

That is all.

For Breda...

Who asked, in comments to this post:

do you play Barbies with BabyGirlG after lunch then?

Nope. No Barbies. She's not into Barbie yet (thank Gaia).

She does, however, do tea parties:

My Little Pony tea parties, to be exact.

(And yes, that's my cup of "tea" on top of Shotgun News...)

That is all.

Just Sayin'...

Metallica's Hit The Lights still gets the ol' head bangin'...

'Course, there's no more of that pesky hair to whip around, but you take what you can get.

I'll probably regret this tomorrow morning, too...

That is all.

Guess It's My Turn...

Okay. I am officially jealous.

Looks like a good time was had by all participants at the Indy Blog Bash.

Unc's always hosting or attending some sort of TN-based gunblogger meet.

Who's interested in a Northeast Blogger meet-up? Any interest in bloggers local to New England/Northeast getting together?

I'm thinking we need to one-up the Indy meet, and rather than get together at some trendy pub, get together at a range...

Let me know if interested...

That is all.

Express Hellervator to Hell...

I just love that title. Had to get it out there in light of other gun bloggers who shall remain nameless (although their names rhyme with PayFunkle and Slow Cooking Trackhards) using the Heller decision to make Hades-related puns...

Other than that, getting my ass kicked six ways to Sunday. More later. If I don't go stark raving bonkers in the meantime...

That is all.

Another Milestone Missed...

...this time by an entire month.

Yeah, it's been more than 20 years since I graduated from high school. My son is only 7 years away from starting high school. He's nearly three times closer to being in high school than I am right now. That's a sobering thought.

Heard a song on the radio that sparked the memory ("The Song Remains the Same" by Led Zeppelin; no, it wasn't new when I was in high school but I was a huge Zep fan at the time, Zep and Floyd...). Dunno why, but hearing it transported me back to high school for a moment, to the point of feeling like I was driving to school rather than to work.

And it dawned on me just how fast time goes - it seems like I graduated only a few short months ago; I graduated college shortly after; then my master's defense... Got married a few weeks ago, had my son a couple of days ago, and my daughter just a few hours ago.

But it's been years... Time has passed, far too quickly for my liking, leaving the young HS graduate with shaggy hair and three months freedom before starting college to turn into a middle-aged married guy with a wife, two kids, house, two cars, the whole grown-up works.

I wouldn't change a thing, mind you. But I am constantly amazed at how quickly time passes.

I guess that's part of why I do my thing here - there's a quasi-permanent record of shit going on in my life. I can look back through the archives and see what was going on last year; I can look back through Toys in the Attic and see some 4 years prior...

Anyways, no point to this ramble other than to lament the passing of time. I focus a lot on the morons I encounter every day (and there are legions of them); on stuff that cheeses me off and makes me break out the expletives; on things that I feel are not right and need to be exposed.

But for all my ranting and raving, I'm just glad to be in the game, playing my hardest, living life and being all I can. Sometimes I have to remember to stop and appreciate what I've got as bestI can. We all should.

That is all.

So Long, Rufus...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

MArooned Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda

Took the family to see Kung Fu Panda last night. We got a gift card to Chunky's Cinema Pub, which is a local chain of eat-in cinemas in the Northeast. You have dinner and a movie at a reasonable price, and the food's actually pretty edible...

I really liked Kung Fu Panda, which surprised me somewhat. Jack Black, the voice talent behind the title character, is an actor I would really like to hate, but can't. He's made a career out of playing the affable loser, the fish-out-of-water who succeeds not despite himself (like Adam Sandler's man-child characters) but because of himself. He plays characters I normally wouldn't like, except he has this annoying habit of making me like them anyways...

The movie was very well done - I have to give major props to Dreamworks for this one. There was no overt or even covert moralizing (a la the anti-suburbia feel to Over the Hedge), just a fun story about good giving evil an old-fashioned butt-whooping. The characters are, for a 90 minute kid's movie, well-developed, likeable, and appealing; the action is rapid-fire and engaging (my 5 year old daughter stayed awake the whole movie!); overall it's a solid hour and a half of fun.

Go see it. Encourage more like it. Hollywood should be nudged into making more like this.

(Side note: one of the trailers is for Madagascar II, which looks to be a hoot...)

That is all.

Back from Bike Week...

Made it home from Laconia despite the best attempts of that evil bitch mother nature to kill me...

(Hail on a motorcycle hurts...)

Good showing this year, although with the Harley Rendezvous this coming weekend, a good chunk of the usual vendors had already packed up and left. Usually there's a week between Bike Week and the Rendezvous, but this year Bike Week was pushed out a week in the hopes of better weather. Insert bitter laugh here...

Took the scenic route up this year - rode up with a different group, and they prefer back roads. Plus they're in NH already, so we were only a little over an hour away to start. MUCH better than cranking up 93, that's for damn sure. This will become the normal route up. Yeah, it takes about a half-hour longer than the highway, but it's a much better ride.

In the course of the day, I managed to not only get a sunburn on my entire head *and* soak myself to the bone on the ride home while dodging hail. Only me (well, and the several thousand or so others out riding today of course). Met some nice folks from NY while listening to an alleged "band" mangle assorted 80s and 90s rock tunes - had to jump in because the (much younger) girlfriend insisted that Ace Frehley wasn't a real guitarist... :)

All in all, had a really good day. And for once, didn't drop a small fortune on shirts, jackets, etc.

That is all.

Gun Pr0n #64

Today's gun pr0n is another in a series I like to call "Guns Jay Doesn't Own But Wishes He Could":

This is a suppressed M4 select-fire assault weapon (yes, it really *is* an assault rifle). Suppressors are prohibited in MA except for Class 07 FFL holders, which are manufacturers. This was taken at the same shoot as the full-auto Glock I posted a couple weeks back. That was a fun day...

Next week we'll explore something different, provided I can get my lazy ass to taking pictures...

And now, off to Laconia!

That is all.

No Place...

Okay, so the latest news from the Stupid Party is that some numbnuts made up a handful of buttons joking about Obama and the White House.

Poor taste, to say the least; bigoted, possibly. Stupid? Absolutely.

The worst part is simply that there is ZERO need for it. There's plenty of reasons to oppose Obama from rational, defensible conservative positions. His foreign "policy" suggestions (remember them joking about George Bush's foreign policy experience being that he ate at IHOP? Yeah. It wasn't all that funny then, and certainly less so now with Obama as the Demo frontrunner) have the earmarks of the Carter years of appeasement; his domestic/economic plans are socialist bordering on communist; his positions and record on the Second Amendment alone show that he is no friend of the Constitution.

Knock off the racist shit. Seriously. There is absolutely NOTHING to gain from it, and plenty to lose - we know the media is actively seeking for reasons to paint the GOP as racist, and a potential Obama loss as evidence of massive racism. Don't feed the trolls. And if you are a piece of shit racist, fuck off and die. We don't need you or want you in the party.

At least I don't.

That is all.

Kickin' Ass...

Let's see... So far today, my son and I have:

*Set up the new tent we got for Cub Scout outings

*Watched two crows take turns attacking a red-tailed hawk

*Played Frisbee

*Helped my dad get his patio furniture set up for the season

*Moved their old (read: 3 years) patio set onto our deck (woo hoo! Free stuff!)

*Ate lunch on new patio set

*Made plans with Papa for a "G men" breakfast tomorrow.

And it's not even 1:00 PM yet. We've still got time to wash the truck and the Harley.

Life. Is. Good.

That is all.

Kickin' Back...

Ahhhh.

Got the rest of the week off because the summer program at my son's school doesn't start until the 23^rd. It also ends two weeks before school starts, so Mrs. G. is taking vacation then to cover child care, and I'm taking this week.

So I've got three days of hangin' with the boy. We've got serious plans laid out: Goof off. Set up the basketball net. Goof off. Wash the truck. Goof off. Go for a Harley ride. Goof off. Try out the new tent. Goof off.

Then we might goof off a little if we have time...

Assuming I can pry him away from Webkinz every once in a while, I should be able to catch up on some overdue blog updating, maintenance, and additions...

That is all.

Hearin' Hoofbeats...

Personal confession time: I'm a hypochondriac. (The folks out there reading this who know me are probably choking back large, horse-like snorts of laughter right now...)

I guess it comes from my mom, who has hypochondriac tendencies, but not in the same league as mine. Every sniffle, every cut, every fever is the black plague, blood poisoning, influenza. I don't look for zebras, I look for unicorns...

Some of it may come from my childhood - when I was 6 I stepped on a galvanized nail and got blood poisoning, resulting in an extended hospital stay. I don't remember all that much from it, other than being scared out of my mind because I was the only kid in the pediatric ward staying overnight. To a six year old, an empty hospital ward at 2AM is pretty much indistinguishable from Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory. No offense to any mad scientists, of course.

And I've managed to rack up a fair amount of oddball injuries - when I was a college student painting houses, I managed to get bitten by what I think was a brown recluse spider and had my left arm get all infected. When I was in my late 20s I developed gout (normally strikes men in their 50s and 60s). So there's juuuust enough reason fact behind my feverish imagination.

(Side note: This, as you can imagine, wreaked havoc on me as a first-time dad. The first time I saw my son spiking a temperature of 105ºF I was ready to drive him to Children's Hospital. My kid only had to throw up once and I was getting the Pedialyte ready. It's gotten a lot better now, as kids are a LOT tougher than we give them credit for.)

All this to chuckle about my neck... This past weekend we had an outdoor birthday party for my daughter (the evil genius). We invited her entire pre-school class, plus both families, and an assortment of extended family/friends etc. It's basically a start-to-summer kickoff barbeque.

While cooking up the third batch of hamburgers, I made a rookie mistake: I was separating two frozen patties with the spatula, and slipped and cut two fingers on my left hand. It was a very shallow cut, only slightly deeper than a standard paper cut, but it happened with a meat-covered spatula. This, as you can imagine, spurred my already fertile imagination with the most horrible of possibilities: Mad cow disease, tetanus, e-coli, etc.

Well, to make matters even more interesting, that night I was tossing and turning and managed to sleep wrong (can you see where this is going?) Woke up Sunday morning and my neck is sore. Yup. I am now firmly convinced that I have tetanus... Spent a good chunk of yesterday researching tetanus, etc. Common sense, as it usually does, prevailed - the likelihood of a shallow cut turning into tetanus in less than 48 hours is rather remote.

So I grabbed the Ben-Gay, applied liberally (about the only time you'll see me do anything liberally, har-dee-har-har), and woke up this morning feeling 99% back to normal. Yeah, I pinched a muscle. Not developing lockjaw...

So, there's your way-too-much-information-about-Jay post for the day.

That is all.

Overheard at the Breakfast Table...

Alternate title: Yep, that's my daughter...

Here's the scene: it's about 15 minutes before we have to leave to drop my son off at the bus stop for his last day of school. Both kids are most of the way through their breakfast (mini-muffins and bananas; the first part will be apparent in a moment). I'm doing my customary coaching routine to get them finished in time ("Finish your milk! Ten minutes until we have to get going!" etc.).

I look at my darling daughter, the oh-so-recent birthday girl, and comment that she's only got one mini-muffin left. She picks it up, holds it at eye level, and comes out with:

"Mua-ha-HA! I already ate all of your friends! They were muffins like you! Mua-ha-HA!"

Five years old and already on her way to becoming the first female evil genius.

*sniff* They grow up so fast...

That is all.

Happy Father's Day!

Just wanted to give a shout-out to the other dads out there.

The ones who put it all on the line, bust their humps day-in, day-out. The ones that volunteer to be coaches, or Scout leaders, or mentors. The guys that get up at 4:00 AM to drive a still-sleeping boy to hockey practice. The guy that goes from his 9-5 job to a second job so he can afford to send his kids to private school. The guy that takes time off from work to go to the school plays, the Little League games, the dance recitals.

The unsung hero, the customary butt of all TV and movie jokes. The guy whose reputation takes it in the shorts every time Madison Avenue makes a new commercial, or Diznee comes out with an insipid dad-is-an-idiot movie, or a TV sitcom shows some fat, stupid slob married to a supermodel.

Today's our day. Seize this day. Play with the kids. Ignore the morons. See a movie. Shoot hoops. Take your kid to the range. Go for a bike ride. Go for a Harley ride. Do all the things that you never quite seem to have time for.

Love your kids. Tell them you love them. Hold them tight. Cherish the time you have right now, before they turn into sullen teenagers... And if they are teenagers and they still don't mind getting a hug from dear ol' dad?

Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

And remember, being a father means you're a motherfucker...

That is all.

Whoa! Didn't See This Coming!

NBC’s Tim Russert dead at 58

WASHINGTON - Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after being stricken at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.

Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” broadcast when he collapsed, the network said.

Apparently Hillary! losing the nomination was too much for him to bear.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Russert.

That is all.

Quick Question...

Didn't we just have an Incredible Hulk movie out? Why is there a new one?

Is the Hulk going to be the new King Kong, where everybody and their brother has to have a shot at remaking the movie???

I mean, I know Hollywood's been having trouble coming up with original ideas (Coming in July: The Urkel Movie!), but this is pathetic...

That is all.

They Say It's Your Birthday...

Alternate title: Daddy's Little Princess turns 5...

Yep. Today my younger child, my only daughter, turns 5. On Friday the 13^th. She was born on Friday the 13^th as well.

Five years ago I learned what it was like to have a little girl. I had a little more than two years' experience as the father of a little boy, and now I had a little girl as well. Five years into this and I'm still amazed at just how friggin' sharp this girl is, watching her pace her older brother in reading, writing, and other pursuits. And he's no slouch, either...



In a little over two months she'll start Kindergarten. Both kids off to school full time. Both kids getting on the big yellow school bus in the morning. No more day care. Woo Hoo!

And yet... It feels like merely a week ago that I was sitting in the hospital room with my wife and newborn daughter... In what's certain to feel like another week or so she'll be grown up, bringing boys home and everything. Which, of course, gives me a reason to post this again:

Heh.

Love you sweetie.

That is all.

Gun Pr0n #63

AAAUUUGGGHHH!!!

As I started to post todays gun pr0n, it dawned on me that the firearm I had chosen was numerically suited for a different day not too far off (that's a hint).

Being the numbers geek that I am, I had to scramble to find a replacement picture. Continuing last week's tradition of posting me shooting guns I don't own, here's today's gun pr0n:

That’s a MacMillan Tac50 50 BMG bolt action rifle with 5 shot box. The scope on it alone costs more than any two guns I own.

Shooting the .50 BMG is an experience unlike any other I've had in the gunnie world. Some rounds, like the .40 S&W, are "snappy", meaning that they cause the gun to jump out of your hand. Others, like the .45 ACP, are more of a "pushy" nature, meaning that they exert significant force against your body during recoil.

The .50 BMG is both snappy *and* pushy. Even with the ginormous muzzle brake, it lets you know this ain't no sippin' tea. This is a serious rifle for serious business (and priced accordingly; the cheapest I've seen any .50 BMG single-shot rifle is around $2K, with magazine-fed bolt-action rifles fetching ~ $5K and semi-automatics like the Barrett M82 going for 8 large. Not to mention the ammo's running between $3-$4 a round...)

The most impressive part, though, comes not from shooting the .50 BMG but by being near one when it touches off. It's a shock wave that extends a good 10 feet around the rifle, and if you're not ready for it, you start wondering if perhaps something went wrong. Until the next shot, that is...

And pants-shitting hysteria aside, no airplanes were shot down in the photographing of today's picture...

That is all.

A Reason to Vote For Obama?

If it means four years of high-quality snark from Tamara, I might be able to live with ol' jug-ears...

Tough call. As much as I love Tam's wicked sense of humor and biting snark, I'll pass on the socialist, kthanxbye...

That is all.

Note to the Corolla Tailgating Me...

1. The speed limit is 40. I'm going 45.
2. Getting so close to my vehicle that your entire hood disappears behind my tailgate is not a great idea unless you have lightning fast reflexes and brakes in perfect condition. I tend to brake, quite hard, for squirrels...
3. Crossing the double yellow line on the two lane black-top as though you're going to pass me? Brother, I've got 345 horsepower that says you don't make it...

(Note: This is a purely hypothetical situation. There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that when he did go to pass me I floored the gas, chirped the tires, and took off like a big-assed bird. Had this been an actual road moron I'd have waited until he pulled up even with me and then hit the gas, and then pace him while he's on the wrong side of the road...)

That is all.

Cub Scout Graduation & Rocket Launch AAR

Monday night was the last Cub Scout Pack Meeting of the season. We held a brief "graduation" where the boys got their respective badges, gave a quick overview of the two summer outings we had planned, and then let the boys loose on pizza and lemonade. It was a hot, sunny afternoon which made for a warm clear evening; and just watching the boys run around with seemingly limitless energy made me tired.

My little Tiger Cub is now a Wolf. He's gotten through his first year of Scouting, and is eager to continue. I'm not getting out of this easy, apparently... :)

While the boys devoured their pizza in a manner reminiscent of a school of piranha skeletonizing a cow (I'm not exaggerating - some 30 something boys made a dozen pizzas vanish in less than 10 minutes), we set up for the rocket launch. We had twin launchers going (note to self for next year: add a third launcher), with the theory being to launch rockets in tandem. Most of the boys chose to run around wildly in the field where the rockets were expected to land in anticipation of catching one from the sky.

Now, I've got to take a step back here. Saying I was into model rockets when I was a kid would be an understatement on the order of saying I kinda like guns now. I had just about every model out there, up to and including the six-foot tall "Mean Machine", the Space Shuttle orbiter (with gliding shuttle, of course), and a couple dozen "Mosquito" rockets. I even got the large box 'o' parts and made my own rockets from scratch - one of my favorites was a C-engine powered monstrosity that I cobbled together with ¼" thick balsa wood fins and a streamer - it was heavy, so it came down quick, but the fins were strong enough to withstand the impact. It flew really high, and came down quickly so as to avoid trees (parachutes slow the rockets much better, but leave 'em hanging on windy days...)

So, needless to say, when they distributed the rocket kits I had my son's rocket finished by the end of the day. And then we postponed the launch due to weather... So we've been waiting nearly a month to set off this rocket.

My son's rocket wound up being the "test" rocket - it was used to show how to load the flame-retardant material used to insulate the streamer from the engine (otherwise you melt the streamer and the rocket hurtles back to earth at terminal velocity); how to load the engine in; how to attach the ignitor; and then it was loaded on the launch pad and set aloft. It flew straight and true, the streamer popping just as planned at the apex of the flight - the engines are designed with a propellant charge to get the rockets airborne and an additional charge when the propellant is expended that pops the nose-cone and releases the streamer or parachute for return to earth.

My son was amazed - for the second time in his Scouting career, something his dad made had performed exactly as expected. His rocket made two more launches, and worked exactly as expected both times thereafter. It even survived a direct impact with the parking lot!

The Scouts absolutely LOVED the rocket launch. Now, granted, getting 7-11 year old boys interested in things that are rocket-powered isn't exactly difficult (especially playing up the "blow stuff up" aspect, as I like to call it), but they were all enthralled with each launch. Every time a rocket made its way to terra firma, a small but determined pack of boys chased after it, all determined to be the one that caught it and delivered it safely to its owner.

At the end, while cleaning up, I was handed the big box 'o' rocket stuff. By this time next year, the current Cubmaster and the other Assistant Cubmaster will be gone, as their sons move on to Boy Scouts. I'll be in charge of the rocket launch. And I can safely state, without fear of contradiction, that I cannot freakin' wait for next year...

I wonder if I can get permission for a January launch... :)

That is all.

Need... Oxygen... Brain...

Just got out of a mandatory anti-harassment training session.

I think after the first hour (and 17 clearly harassing scenarios) my brain tried to jump out of my skull and run for freedom.

After the second hour, the rest of my body was doing the same...

I've come away with one conclusion: I will no longer say anything to anybody about any subject while at work...

That is all.

Open Question...

...for those folks who believe that the eeeevil Chimpy McHaliburton is in collusion with the even eeeeeviler "Big Oil" to raise the price of consumer gasoline to further increase the "Big Oil" profits:

Do you think that, if Obama wins in November, gas prices at the pump will:
a. Start going down, as Obama's policies will not be as favorable to the big oil companies;
b. Stay the same, because the damage by BushhitlerCo. has already been done but at least Obamessiah will stop the madness; or
c. Continue increasing.

Be careful with response "c", as it treads dangerously close to admitting that Bush had little-to-nothing to do with the price of oil. It's also the most likely scenario, given that gasoline prices have been rising since the late 1990s...

That is all.

Monday Monday...

Boy, them weekends sure do go by fast, don't they?

Things are pretty hectic right now, hope to have more later. Sorry...

That is all.

Why I'm Not Voting for Obama, Part II

A fist bump? F'real?

Securing enough support to become the first black American to win a major party's backing for president, the freshman Illinois senator took to the stage here at the Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday night with his wife Michelle by his side. They bumped fists gently in mutual congratulations, and she gave him a thumbs-up, kissed him and stepped aside. Some 17,000 adoring supporters cheered in jubilation as another 15,000 waited outside, according to local fire authorities.

After a gruelling fight for the Democratic nomination, he's doing a fist bump? C'mon...

This isn't a race thing, folks. This is a pathetic middle-aged-guy-still-trying-to-be-hip thing. What's next? A red convertible? Is he going to reveal his Webkinz log-in name? A Facebook page? This is about as authentic as John Kerry asking if he could get a huntin' license...

(And I'll ignore the bit about "adoring supporters". Too cult-of-personality for my liking, thankyewverymuch...)

That is all...

Today in History...

4³ years ago today was the invasion of Normandy. Pause, please, to think about the sheer amount of bravery it took for those young men to fling themselves into the very maw of the Nazi war machine to liberate Europe.

Whether it was the paratroopers dropping blindly into enemy territory, or the young grunts coming ashore on the beach under withering machine gun fire, those young men gave their lives so that a truly evil regime would fall. Their sacrifices that day, and many other days during World War II, insured that we would only talk about the horrors of Nazi Germany in the past.

The implications are staggering. What if they had not be willing or able to pull off the Normandy invasion? What if they'd waited for the weather to improve? What if the United States hadn't joined the Allied Forces, but chose to sit it out on the sidelines?

And are we squandering the freedom those men died for?

That is all.

Friday Gun Pr0n #62

Today's gun pr0n is inspired by a post at T-bolt's about full-auto fun. I commented that I had a video of me shooting a full-auto Glock somewhere. Which, of course, meant that I had to comb through the archives until I found it, uploaded it, and made it today's gun pr0n:



That's a Glock 34 (thanks Andrew!) with full-auto sear and shoulder stock. It's a completely legal firearm, as it's owned by a Class 07 FFL (manufacturer) - who, BTW, also makes silencers. That's one of the 30+ round Glock mags, and I was going easy on the trigger. The rate of fire is just insane - certainly not as sedate as other subguns I've shot (Uzi, Mac, Thompson).

The first thing that jumped out at me when I saw this video? The fact that I look like a big tub 'o' goo...

That is all.

Why I'm Voting Against Obama, Part 1

From a link @ Jeff's place:

Where they stand: Obama, McCain on the issues

GUN CONTROL

McCain: Voted against ban on assault-type weapons but in favor of requiring background checks at gun shows. Voted to shield gun-makers and dealers from civil suits. "I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved — which means no gun control."

Obama: Voted to leave gun-makers and dealers open to suit. Also, as Illinois state lawmaker, supported ban on all forms of semiautomatic weapons and tighter state restrictions generally on firearms.

(Emphasis mine).

'Nuff said. I'll take "background checks at gun shows" over total ban on semi-automatic weapons any day.

That is all.

They Say It's Your Birthday...

My favorite librarian is celebrating her birthday today.

Go. Wish her well. Sing "Happy Birthday" to her (I posted the lyrics in comments in case you forgot). :)

Happy birthday, kiddo. Best wishes for many more!

That is all.

One More Time, With Feeling...

Okay. I cannot believe I have to go through this again, but...

Look. If you're in a long line of traffic at an intersection with a traffic light, where the traffic on the other side of the intersection is backed up to said intersection, and you proceed directly into the middle of the intersection after the light has turned yellow, you are a fucking asshole. Eat shit and die, you vehicular clog on the traffic artery of life.

Your dumbfuckery results in absolutely NO ONE getting through the fucking intersection, all so you can sit there, in your asshatmobile, waiting for the long line in front of you to start moving. You're saving yourself MAYBE 20 seconds of time, and making yourself a giant fucking target being in the middle of the intersection. All I can add is that I hope the next time you pull this shithead stunt an out-of-control semi carrying bat guano police officer crushes you into pudding witnesses your idiocy and writes you a magnificently large ticket.

Please, resist him. Ideally, get out of your car quickly and rush the police car with something dark in your hand...

Failing that, please drink out of a bottle of Drano, post haste. Fall into an open septic tank and light a match to see. Blowdry your hair in the bathtub. Play Russian Roulette with a Glock. In short, die motherfucker, die.

That is all.

So It's Come to This...

Barack "Cute & Fuzzy Bunnies" Obama vs. John McCain.

Sheesh. Talk about a shit sandwich.

Here's some predictions about this matchup based on years of following politics as a spectator sport:

1. Watch for Obama's "experience" (or lack thereof) to be spun as an advantage. The phrase "least qualified candidate to ever run for President", which was used to describe George Bush in 2000, will not appear. Even though Obama's only served 3 years in the US Senate (with a good half of that time spent campaigning for President), his experience will be sufficient, whereas Bush's two terms as Governor of the third largest state in the union was not.

2. Military service will be either totally ignored or turned into a negative. Watch for a complete and utter 180º turn from the "chickenhawk" meme as John McCain is turned into a "warmonger" based on his "need for revenge" from his time in Vietnam (which, they will harp, was a hundred bazillion years ago so they can focus on just how oooollllllddd McCain is).

3. We need to leave poor Michelle Obama alone, but Cindy McCain's tax returns will become more important that the Rose Law Firm records.

4. McCain will be painted ad nauseum as a far-right extremist (although his record in the Senate hardly supports it), whereas Obama will be the "centrist" (despite being ranked as one of the most liberal members of the Senate).

5. The media will continue the lovefest with Obama and forget allll about how much of a "Maverick" John McCain is/was. In fact, look for McCain's "Maverick" status to be turned into a negative.

Not looking forward to this one, folks. Because even if by some miracle McCain manages to win in November, we're still stuck with John McCain...

Letters... We Get Letters...

This time it's from Ahab over at Call Me Ahab.

So I'm reading this article in Boston online about what a clusterfuck it is to get a carry permit; and I was wondering if you could shed some light on the laws surrounding that.

I'm working up a post on why pre-emption and "may-issue" sucks so hard, but since I don't live in Mass. I'm not that familiar with your silly-assed gun laws.

"Silly-assed" is being charitable, Ahab...

Anyhoo, because

a) I'm always hard up for good blog fodder; and
b) I'm a lazy sumbitch at heart and couldn't bear the thought of not milking my keystrokes for all they're worth,

I'll reproduce my response here...

---

Let me start with a brief primer. There are three basic flavors of gun permits in MA:

1. FID: This allows you to purchase and own non-high capacity long arms (i.e. not AR-15s) and shotguns. This is "shall-issue", meaning that unless you are a Federally prohibited person, you get the permit.

2. LTC Class B: This is the non-high capacity permit. You can own high-capacity long arms but not high capacity handguns. It's especially useless given that MA extended the AWB (no new magazines > 10 rounds). This permit is "may-issue", left to the discretion of the local chief of police. It does NOT allow concealed carry.

3. LTC Class A: This is the high-capacity permit. This is the only permit which allows concealed carry. This permit is also "may issue" at the discretion of the local CoP, and has an extra twist: The chief may impose restrictions upon the carry requirement, such as work only, target and hunting only (i.e. no CCW), or unrestricted (technically, according to my license, it's "Restrictions: None"). A Class A LTC is the ONLY license that allows concealed carry.

There are some 350+ cities and towns in the Commonwealth of MA. I suspect there are about as many horror stories.

Bruce (No Looking Backwards) went through a ton of crap to get a restricted permit in a suburb of Boston. He waited > 100 days to get a restricted permit that allowed him to own and transport a gun, but not to carry it for self-defense.

Me, I've had a carry permit since the early 1990s. My dad's a retired MA state cop and my grandfather, whose passing spawned my getting the vast bulk of my gun collection, was a town cop for over 40 years. I grew up around guns, in a town that's pretty reasonable about permits. They will give out "unrestricted" licenses, although they give a restricted your first time around. I got an FID when I turned 15, so I had a non-carry permit for 8 years before I got my license to carry (I got my Class A when my grandfather passed away, as he gave me several handguns, for which the Class A/B was needed).

Even in a somewhat reasonable town I needed to take a Firearms Safety Course, complete with target requirement (side note: I scored the highest in the class; I LOVE the S&W Model 41). I needed two or three letters of recommendation from non-family members.

And this is on the lesser end of requirements - Bruce had to join a gun club and take his shooting test in Boston proper, at the same range the Boston PD uses. Other cities require a doctor's note. Some require the safety course and range qualifications be repeated for RENEWALS.

And other towns don't require anything other than the safety course for first time applicants and they'll give an unrestricted license.

It's completely capricious and arbitrary depending on the whim and demeanor of the chief of police. Some are reasonable. Some are imperialistic pricks.

There was even one town (Carver, MA) where the chief of police declared that she was not going to issue *ANY* permits - this was in the wake of the Columbine shootings - INCLUDING renewals (she was basically run out of town on a rail the next election...)

Oh, and did I mention that you can't own as much as a single ammunition component (like brass casings) without a permit? In other words, you lose your permit, you lose your guns. Period. So, in the town of Carver, any gun owner whose permit expired had to sell all their guns, move, or become a felon. All because the chief got a hair up her @$$ about firearms.

Check out Northeastshooters forum - there's a link on my blog (see: Derek under "Bloggers I've Met"). Lots and lots of good quality info.

Hope this helps!

---

So, in a nutshell, there's how MA gun permits shake out. Logic and reason play no part; luck, geography, and connections weigh heavily...

That is all.

UPDATE: T-Bolt asks about cost and renewal info. Good question. Cost for all permits is $100, although some cities and towns add as much as $40 - illegally, mind you, although there's no penalty for those that do. Permits expire on your birthday and expire on the 5^th birthday after renewal. What some towns (like mine) do is overlap +1 week so that you get ~ 6 years - so if your permit expires on 01/01/2010, your town renews on 01/08/10 so that your next permit needs to be renewed on 01/01/2016.

It's confusing, but welcome to MA. Leave the Constitution at the state line.

Credit Card Chicanery...

This pisses me off.

For years, Mrs. G and I have had an LL Bean credit card. We've used it primarily for purchases, shockingly, at LL Bean, where it gets us free shipping and monogramming. Which, mind you, is exactly how it was advertised to us. "Free Shipping!" "Free Monogramming". Now, we don't get an awful lot of stuff from Bean, but enough that getting the credit card would be useful. No annual fee, so there wasn't any cost to us to have it and use it a few times a year.

Recently we got a notice telling us that the parent company was severing ties with Bean, and would be issuing us a new credit card. At the same time, we get a notice from LL Bean telling us that the partnership was ending and that we could apply for a new credit card from LL Bean.

Uh, no fucking way. I don't particularly feel like leaving a wake of unused credit cards hanging in the breeze every time you want to jack up the interest rate by jettisoning loyal customers. And then asking them to re-apply. No. Doesn't work that way.

Needless to say, we'll be cutting up the new card and cancelling the account. We've got a "primary" card that we use for everyday expenses; we have a secondary card for online purchases; and we have a Discover Card for Sam's Club (although I hear recently they've been accepting regular Visa/Mastercard, so that one may fall by the wayside as well...).

I dunno. It just pissed me off that they thought they could double the number of cards we got to save a few bucks on shipping. You wonder how many people they get with this kinda crap; how many unused and unchecked credit card accounts are just ripe for the fleecing as people open more and more accounts on whims.

Three cards works for me. The number of the counting shall be three. Two is wrong, unless thou proceedeth unto three. Four is also wrong. Five is right out...

That is all.

Drive-by Blogging...

I see that Hillary! won the Puerto Rico primary. Good for her.

In unrelated news, I hear the Titanic had a kickin' buffet...

That is all.